Tinkerbell

After a fairy in J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1902), in which the name is spelled Tinker Bell. She was described by Barrie as a fairy who mended pots and kettles, like an actual tinker, and her speech consists of the sounds of a tinkling bell.

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Tinkerbell (plural Tinkerbells)

1. Anything whose existence or power depends on the faith of believers.
   • 1988, Caroline Arden, Getting the Donkey Out of the Ditch: The Democratic Party in Search of Itself, page 104:

     I characterize it as the "Tinkerbell Approach" to policy development: It might work if all the children would just believe hard enough and clap their hands

   • 1994, Alice Thomas Ellis, Cat Among the Pigeons: A Catholic Miscellany, page 57:

     Sometimes I get the impression that the Tinkerbell theory is taking over: that the existence of God is dependent on our own existence and perceptions.

   • 2003, William Lehr, Lorenzo M. Pupillo, Cyber policy and economics in an internet age, page 92:

     The New.net venture underlined an important principle: ICANN's authority over the DNS root is fundamentally subject to the "Tinkerbell" principle.

2. (slang, derogatory, offensive) A homosexual or effeminate man.
   • 1986, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Intergovernmental Relations and Human Resources Subcommittee, Federal and Local Governments' Response to the AIDS Epidemic, page 287:

     When he confronted his boss he screamed at him about being gay and fired him saying he didn't want "Tinkerbells" working for him.

• Tinkerbell line

• Tinkerbell on Wikipedia.Wikipedia