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switcheroo

/ˈswɪtʃəˌru/
IPA guide

Other forms: switcheroos

A switcheroo is a surprising change or reversal. If your mom replaced the cookies in a cookie jar with plums, your dad might say, "She pulled the old switcheroo!"

Most often, a switcheroo is a joke or trick — a magician might appear to change your ten-dollar bill into a feather, and you could call this a switcheroo. Another kind of switcheroo is simply an abrupt change of direction, like a sudden switcheroo in a movie's plot that leaves you totally confused. Switcheroo was first used, in an informal and joking way, in 1933.

Definitions of switcheroo
  1. noun
    a sudden, unexpected change or reversal
    see moresee less
    type of:
    shift, switch, switching
    the act of changing one thing or position for another
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