gimmick
gimmick Lexical Profile
gimmick Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A trick, scheme, or novel feature designed primarily to attract attention, publicity, or trade, often lacking real intrinsic value.
"The restaurant's robot waiters were dismissed by food critics as a cheap marketing gimmick."
In professional wrestling and entertainment, a performer's distinctive stage persona, costume, and characteristic behavior.
"The veteran wrestler reinvented his career by adopting a new villainous gimmick that audiences loved to boo."
An ingenious or secret mechanical device, especially one used by a magician or carnival operator to manipulate a trick or game.
"The stage magician carefully concealed the brass gimmick inside the false bottom of the top hat."
• verb
To equip, alter, or embellish something with a trick, secret device, or attention-seeking feature.
"The carnival operator had gimmicked the roulette wheel so that it rarely landed on the highest prize."
• Rhymes for gimmick
Word Origin & Etymology
Originated in the 1920s as American carnival and magician slang for a hidden device used to rig a game or perform a trick; often theorized to be an approximate anagram of the word 'magic'.