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does Macy's tell Gimbel's

does Macy's tell Gimbel's phrase: a rhetorical question with the implied answer being that competitors do not share business secrets with one another.

Phrase

does Macy's tell Gimbel's?

  1. (US, colloquial, dated, rhetoric) A rhetorical question with the implied answer being that competitors do not share business secrets with one another.
    • The "Does Macy's tell Gimbel's?" gag has been a standard one in New York for many years. It was somewhat shattered last night at the Copacabana, when two young couples were seated at a ringside table and conversed at great length...."Well, Macy's may not tell Gimbel's," said one of the young men...1941 January 21, The Washington Post, page 22
    • In other words the older circuit will give the Johnny-come-lately as little help and comfort as it can. After all, does Macy's tell Gimbel's?1946 January 11, The New York Times, page 24

Origin of does Macy's tell Gimbel's

Macy's and Gimbels (without the apostrophe) were popular department stores located within two blocks of one another in Midtown Manhattan in New York City; the latter store is now defunct.

Questions about does Macy's tell Gimbel's

What does does Macy's tell Gimbel's mean?
Does Macy's tell Gimbel's means a rhetorical question with the implied answer being that competitors do not share business secrets with one another.
What part of speech is does Macy's tell Gimbel's?
Does Macy's tell Gimbel's is a phrase.

Words near does Macy's tell Gimbel's in the dictionary

  1. does it brown
  2. does it tough
  3. does it up brown
  4. does justice
  5. does lunch
  6. does Macy's tell Gimbel's
  7. does more harm than good
  8. does not compute
  9. does nothing
  10. does numbers
  11. does off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: does Macy's tell Gimbel's (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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