gremlin
23
8.3
- noun
- /ˈɡrɛm.lɪn/
- Literature
:
duende
- She's 11, talkative, unlike yourself, and she tears your batch of banana bread like a little gremlin.
- gremlin chirp
And when I have my curly hair, I do the exact same thing and I just kind of sleep with it and cross my fingers that I don't wake up looking like a gremlin.
- And when I have my curly hair, I do the exact same thing and I just kind of sleep with it and cross my fingers that I don't wake up looking like a gremlin.
- And just like that, our Kremlin gremlin comes alive.
- I'm sorry, I confuse you with gremlins all the time.
- Oh yeah, yes, Gremlin faces out again.
- Get me like a little gremlin.
- And at the time you had alpacas and a Brussels griffon, this ridiculous little dogs, little gremlins.
Examples
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Let's go find those gremlins.
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There just might be a gremlin in your house.
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You look like a little gremlin
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She's just a little gremlin.
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It's feeding time for the gremlins, and I'm not going to stick my finger down in there at all.
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The children specifically enjoyed interacting with the game by touching the rocket ship that hid the gremlin.
Academic text (1992) -
Virginia Connors saw the potential in this scene; unfortunately, she did not spot the gremlins sitting in wait to spoil her idea.
Academic text (1994) -
It had so many electrical gremlins just for, for instance, the door locks were air powered.
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Well, if you're a little podcast gremlin, you're going to want to be under a bridge because that's where gremlins live for the reception.
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The technician blamed the malfunction on a mischievous gremlin in the machine.
Synonyms
105
8.3
A small, ugly creature that causes trouble for people
99
6.1
A small magical creature with pointed ears that often plays tricks
33
8.4
A small magical creature with pointed ears that plays tricks
5
9.6
A small naughty creature from old stories, like a little demon
3
9.9
A scary creature from old stories that scares people
2
9.9
A small, ugly creature in stories that plays mean tricks on people
1
9.9
A small naughty fairy in English folk tales that plays tricks
A small spirit in old stories that sometimes helps or bothers people
Antonyms
How Mischievous
Surface Forms
Etymology
Gremlin comes from stories by British pilots who blamed small, invisible creatures for plane problems; think of it like a tiny goblin that likes to cause trouble. A helpful way to remember it is to imagine a little 'mischief-maker' hiding in your engine, which is why we call strange faults in machines 'gremlins'.