Meaning of Shtick | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A generally humorous routine.
2. A characteristic trait or theme, especially in the way people or media present themselves.
3. A gimmick.

Equivalents

Examples

“Sally Marr: Lenny [Bruce] used to do a shtick between strippers. / The Interviewer: What kind of stick⟳? / Sally Marr: No, it's shtick, darling, shtick.”

“Dag and I are drying glasses, a strangely restful activity, and we're listening to Mr. M. do his Mr. M. shtick. We feed⟳ him lines; it's like⟳ watching a Bob Hope⟳ TV special but with home viewer participation.”

“But even great shtick can get⟳ old real fast: the dreaded Saturday Night Live⟳ syndrome.”

“By its thirtieth episode, the show⟳ had degenerated into tics and shticks and mannerisms and red herrings, and part of the explanation for this was that [David] Lynch was trying to divert our attention from the fact that he really had no idea how to wrap⟳ the central murder⟳ case up.”

“The troops didn’t seem to care much about the meta-ness of Mr. [Steven] Colbert’s visit⟳, nor were they uneasy about his political shtick as they laughed at the gags about clearing Iraq of weapons of mass destruction […]”

“I'm never ever gonna quit⟳ 'cause / Quittin' just ain't my shtick”

“Like⟳ you, I have⟳ stumbled through life without knowing what an umlaut signifies and looked it up today only because language is my shtick.”

“Self-mythology has always been part of The Darkness’ shtick, but here Hawkins and crew forget⟳ to back it up with music catchy enough to transcend the solipsism.”

“[…] however hard she pushed the tough-talkin’ shtick, she remained doe-eyed, glowing and somehow unassailably demure.”

“Whether [Ted] Cruz can, in fact, build⟳ the relationships he would need⟳ within the halls of the Capitol if he is to be the nominee – and whether doing so would undermine his anti-Washington shtick – remains an open-ended question⟳.”

“Why, [Jacob Rees-]Mogg even offers the same shtick: Etonian accent, Latin tags, supposedly lovable Wodehousian eccentricity, sub-Churchillian evocation of the glorious past of this island race⟳.”

“Johnson’s approach⟳ to that deadly crisis was to only lightly repurpose his shtick into the equivalent of “Get⟳ Covid done””

CEFR level