gnome-napping
gnome-napping noun: a prank in which one steals a garden gnome and then either leaves it posed in a public place or photographs it in front of tourist locations.
Noun
gnome-napping (countable and uncountable, plural gnome-nappings)
- A prank in which one steals a garden gnome and then either leaves it posed in a public place or photographs it in front of tourist locations.
- There has always been plenty of gnome-napping in Adelaide, but there were no ransom notes for our dog, and it didn't turn up in any obvious places such as on the university lawns.1997, John Griffin, Back Yard: A Gardening Life, →ISBN, page 20
- Mayor Rosenbaum: Considering the seriousness of the situation—hehe, not to mention my impending reelection campaign—I'm setting up a task force to deal with the gnome-nappings. Officer Halcroft will get right on it.1999, Mona the Vampire, "There's No Place Like Gnome" (season 1, episode 4b)
Examples of gnome-napping in a sentence
- The front's activities are similar to "gnome-nappings" in Australia that David Hult detailed in 1988 and Jan Brunvand described again in 1989.2003, Jeannie B. Thomas, Naked Barbies, Warrior Joes, and Other Forms of Visible Gender, →ISBN:
- There is a clandestine international conspiracy behind these gnome-nappings, similar in scope and complexity to those organized to perform crop circle hoaxes and stage UFO sightings.2004, Marcus Mennes, Gnome & Garden: A Gnovelty Kit, →ISBN, page 44:
- The gnome-napping continued unsolved for over a month, until one day, they were discovered in the soccer fields, lined up for a kickoff against a team of pink plastic flamingoes.2015, Beverly Allen, For Whom the Bluebell Tolls, →ISBN:
Forms of gnome-napping
| plural | gnome-nappings |
|---|---|
| alternative form | gnomenapping |
Origin of gnome-napping
Blend of gnome + kidnapping.
Questions about gnome-napping
- What does gnome-napping mean?
- Gnome-napping means a prank in which one steals a garden gnome and then either leaves it posed in a public place or photographs it in front of tourist locations.
- How do you use gnome-napping in a sentence?
- The front's activities are similar to "gnome-nappings" in Australia that David Hult detailed in 1988 and Jan Brunvand described again in 1989.
- What part of speech is gnome-napping?
- Gnome-napping is a noun.
- What is the plural of gnome-napping?
- The plural of gnome-napping is gnome-nappings.
Words near gnome-napping in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gnome-napping (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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Cite this entry: “gnome-napping.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gnome-napping. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.