how's your father

how's your father noun: a whatsit; a thing which the speaker is unable or unwilling to specify more precisely.

Noun

how's your father (countable and uncountable, plural how's your fathers)

(UK, countable, slang) A whatsit; a thing which the speaker is unable or unwilling to specify more precisely.
- And meanwhile at the station, there's a couple of likely lads
  Who swear like how's your father, and they're very cool for cats.1979, “Cool for Cats”, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook (music), performed by Squeeze
Synonyms:

Sorted by number of Google hits, widget, hickey, gizmo, thingy, gimmick, thingie, jigger, gismo, gubbins
(UK, euphemistic, slang, uncountable) Sexual intercourse.
- I popped round Mary's for a bit of how's your father.
- I mean what a buzz, man, me four fans, an’ I'm on the fookin’ telly! They love it! So suddenly it's knickers off and ’ow's your father.2002, Ben Elton, High Society, Random House, published 2012, →ISBN, page 226

Synonyms of how's your father

Sorted by number of Google hits
widget
hickey
gizmo
thingy
gimmick
thingie
jigger
gismo
gubbins

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of how's your father

plural	how's your fathers

Origin of how's your father

A popular catchphrase of the 1910s popularised by music-hall entertainer Harry Tate, who used it for comic effect to change the subject away from one about which his character was ignorant (hence sense 1) or a taboo subject (hence sense 2).

Questions about how's your father

What does how's your father mean?: How's your father means a whatsit; a thing which the speaker is unable or unwilling to specify more precisely.
What part of speech is how's your father?: How's your father is a noun.
What is the plural of how's your father?: The plural of how's your father is how's your fathers.

Words near how's your father in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: how's your father (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-how's your father.ogg.

Cite this entry: “how's your father.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/how%27s_your_father. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.