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Midget vs Gadget - What's the difference?

midget | gadget |

As nouns the difference between midget and gadget

is that midget is (originally) a little sandfly while gadget is (obsolete) a thing whose name cannot be remembered; thingamajig, doohickey.

midget

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (originally) A little sandfly.
    • ''Although tiny and just two-winged, midgets can bite you manyfold till you itch all over your unprotected skin
  • (loosely) Any small swarming insect similar to the mosquito; a midge
  • A normally proportioned person with small stature, usually defined as reaching an adult height less than 4'10".
  • (sometimes derogatory) Any short person.
  • (attributively) That is a small version of something; miniature
    • the midget pony

    Usage notes

    * Used for an insect, this is a variation on (midge) that is incorrect but commonly used.

    Synonyms

    * dwarf (loosely) * dwarf, short-arse, shortie/shorty, tich/titch, vertically challenged person (humorous) * (swarming insect) midge * (miniature) dwarf

    Antonyms

    * giant * (miniature) giant

    References

    * [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=midge&searchmode=none]

    gadget

    English

    (wikipedia gadget)

    Alternative forms

    * gadjet

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) a thing whose name cannot be remembered; thingamajig, doohickey
  • * 1886 , Robert Brown, Spunyard and Spindrift, A Sailor Boy's Log of a Voyage Out and Home in a China Tea-clipper :
    • Then the names of all the other things on board a ship! I don't know half of them yet; even the sailors forget at times, and if the exact name of anything they want happens to slip from their memory, they call it a chicken-fixing, or a gadjet , or a timmey-noggy, or a wim-wom—just pro tem. , you know.
  • any device or machine, especially one whose name cannot be recalled. Often either clever or complicated.
    • He bought a neat new gadget for shredding potatoes.
    That's quite a lot of gadgets you have collected. Do you use any of them?

    Synonyms

    * contraption * contrivance * doohickey * gizmo * widget

    Derived terms

    * gadgety

    Anagrams

    * English placeholder terms ----