Word.ws English Dictionary

shtick

UK/ʃtɪk/

shtick noun: a generally humorous routine.

Noun

shtick (plural shticks)

  1. A generally humorous routine.
    • 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.1974, Julian Barry, Lenny
    • 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.1991, Douglas Coupland, “Celebrities Die”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC, page 111
  2. A characteristic trait or theme, especially in the way people or media present themselves.
    • I'm never ever gonna quit 'cause / Quittin' just ain't my shtick1973, Barry White, “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up”
    • Like you, I have stumbled through life without knowing what an umlaut signifies and looked it up today only because language is my shtick.2001 April 22, William Safire, “Shtick”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  3. A gimmick.

shtick meaning in Tamil

shtick in Tamil

ஏமாற்றுதல்

Examples of shtick in a sentence

  • But even great shtick can get old real fast: the dreaded Saturday Night Live syndrome.1995, Rik, quotee, MacUser, volume 11, MacUser Publications, page 147:
  • 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.2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club:
  • […] however hard she pushed the tough-talkin’ shtick, she remained doe-eyed, glowing and somehow unassailably demure.2014 January 21, Hermione Hoby, “Julia Roberts interview for August: Osage County – 'I might actually go to hell for this…'”, in The Daily...
  • 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.2017 October 4, Jonathan Freedland, “Boorish Boris: Johnson’s Libya joke is proof he cannot do his job”, in The Guardian:

Forms of shtick

pluralshticks
alternative formschtick
alternative formschtik
alternative formshtik

Origin of shtick

Borrowed from Yiddish שטיק (shtik, “shtick, act, piece”). Cognate with German Stück, Dutch stuk. Doublet of shtuka, steck, and styca.

Words formed from shtick

Phrases with shtick

Words that rhyme with shtick

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shtick

What does shtick mean?
Shtick means a generally humorous routine.
What is shtick in Tamil?
Shtick in Tamil is ஏமாற்றுதல். See Shtick meaning in Tamil.
How do you use shtick in a sentence?
But even great shtick can get old real fast: the dreaded Saturday Night Live syndrome.
What part of speech is shtick?
Shtick is a noun.
How do you pronounce shtick?
Shtick is pronounced /ʃtɪk/ (UK).
What is the plural of shtick?
The plural of shtick is shticks.

Words near shtick in the dictionary

  1. Shteyngartian
  2. SHTF
  3. shtg
  4. shtg.
  5. shthg.
  6. shtick
  7. shtickier
  8. shtickiest
  9. shtickle
  10. shtickles
  11. shticks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shtick (page history and authors); shtick (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shtick.ogg.

Cite this entry: “shtick.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shtick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.