so-and-so
Americannoun
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so-and-sos
plural
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someone or something not definitely named.
to gossip about so-and-so.
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a bastard; son of a bitch (used as a euphemism).
Tell the old so-and-so to mind his own business.
noun
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a person whose name is forgotten or ignored
so-and-so came to see me
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euphemistic a person or thing regarded as unpleasant or difficult
which so-and-so broke my razor?
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of so-and-so
First recorded in 1590–1600
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“When I see the shoes that so-and-so wore or the dress that so-and-so wore, they seem to me like butterflies that once flew and now they’re dead,” Iñárritu says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2026
John Jeanson isn’t an AI such-and-such or a crypto so-and-so.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
You knew, when you walked into a courtroom and said “I am so-and-so, representing the government or representing the United States of America,” that what you said carried credibility.
From Slate ● Nov. 24, 2025
"I've never been on holiday without bumping into a Welsh person and then after about half a minute you're like, 'well do you know so-and-so if you're from Merthyr?' and they always do."
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2025
But now, tonight, the dead were risen, Earth was reinhabited, memory awoke, a million names were spoken: What was so-and-so doing tonight on Earth?
From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury
Hoover’s men are smug, citified so-and-sos in trim suits who set great store by fancy crime-fighting techniques like fingerprint analysis, wiretaps, two-way radios and aerial surveillance.
From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2019
Around New York City, it seemed, there was a tiny enclave of impassioned, well-fed so-and-sos who had all gone mad for this will-o’-the-wisp of a savory.
From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2011
If you're going to indict this long line of greedy so-and-sos for causing financial crashes, you also have to credit them with all the intervening periods of prosperity.
From BusinessWeek ● Jul. 20, 2010
They say the image of public servants in parts of the media as "lazy, idle so-and-sos, on massive wages" is unfair.
From The Guardian ● May 22, 2010
Though, by the so-and-sos of Ursula's eleven thousand traveling companions, there was a time wherein I would not have brooked such criticism.
From Jurgen A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
