gubbins
Britishnoun
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(functioning as singular) an object of little or no value
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(functioning as singular) a small device or gadget
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(functioning as plural) odds and ends; litter or rubbish
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(functioning as singular) a silly person
Etymology
Origin of gubbins
C16 (meaning: fragments): from obsolete gobbon, probably related to gobbet
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.
We had already made a terrible mess of it, with three cameras and all the wiry gubbins that goes with them.
From BBC • May 21, 2011
To Clough, this reeked of mediocrity, so not long after his arrival in 1967, he got rid of the extraneous gubbins and stripped the club's crest back to a massive ram's head.
From The Guardian • Dec. 3, 2010
There's a clever electronic gubbins hidden away somewhere that determines the sounds we hear.
From The Guardian • Jun. 6, 2010
Back then, as if to avoid eclipsing the day job, Albarn and illustrator Jamie Hewlett shrouded their so-called "virtual band" in all manner of multimedia gubbins.
From The Guardian • Apr. 29, 2010
Craig Kelly's laconic Lancastrian commentary was the only tolerable thing about gap year gubbins Shipwrecked.
From The Guardian • Mar. 25, 2010
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.
