colloq. Also 8 thing-o-me, thing-o’-me, 9 thing-o-my, thingamy, -ammy, -ummie, -umy. [f. THINGUM + -Y (? dim.).] Used (in undignified speech) to indicate vaguely a thing (or person) of which the speaker cannot at the moment recall the name, or which he or she is at a loss or does not care to specify precisely; a ‘what-you-may-call-it.’
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, III. 259. Poor miss thing-o’-me’s hat is spoilt already.
1803. Fessenden, Terr. Tractor., IV. (ed. 2), 174, note. The little whalebone thingamy which the Duke of Queensbury run at New Market.
1807. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 38. I mean only to tune up those little thing-o-mys, who represent nobody but themselves.
1819. ‘R. Rabelais,’ Abeillard & Heloisa, 101. A passport to a brilliant court Where all great thingummies resort.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, viii. What a bloated aristocrat Thingamy has become!
1904. Times, 11 Jan., 12/2. Mr. So-and-so has … ‘entrusted’ its little carcase to Mr. Thingummy, birdstuffer.
