thingy

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See also: Thingy

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From thing +‎ -y (diminutive suffix).

Alternative forms

Noun

thingy (plural thingies)

  1. (informal) A thing (used to refer to something vaguely or when one cannot recall or does not wish to mention its name).
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:thingy
    • 1996, Antonio Skármeta, translated by Jonathan Tittler, Love-Fifteen, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Latin American Literary Review Press, →ISBN, page 115:
      And as soon as that temperature returns to normal, let’s talk about the thingies that go through your headie at night.
    • 2013, Iain Banks, Raw Spirit, page 60:
      What I should really do, of course, is use a Personal Digital Assistant; one of those tiny hand-held computerette thingies […]
    • 2023, Steve G Romaniuk, Tales from the Alternate Universe: Vol. 1:
      The incorporated technology is based on absolutely serious alt-fact science—that old familiar Einsteiny, time dilation thingy only in reverse— which also forms the basis of much of LaLa Valley's tech AI prowess.
  2. (slang, euphemistic, childish) A penis.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:penis
    • 2004, Richard Tinsley, Walking on the Son:
      He pulled out his thingy. It was huge.
Translations

Pronoun

thingy

  2. (informal) A person whose name one cannot recall.
    Hyponyms: what's-his-name, what's-her-name, what's-his-face, what's-her-face
    He reminds me of thingy from that film.

Etymology 2

From thing +‎ -y (adjectival suffix).

Adjective

thingy (comparative thingier, superlative thingiest)

  1. Resembling or characteristic of a thing; tangible.
    • 1985, A. S. Byatt, Still Life:
      The most unpleasant, and also the thingiest, the central thing in Foreign Parts, was a giant banyan tree, putting out more and more suckers which created tangled arches, a swollen hiding-place of a tree, a series of organic traps, […]
    • 2017, Francis Spufford, True Stories: And Other Essays, page 128:
      The secret of even the thingiest SF, the most solid-walnut-to-the-knuckles fantasy, is that you don't need much to summon worlds out of air, so long as the details are the right ones.

References

Further reading

Anagrams

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