Home » Dictionary » floggle toggle

floggle toggle

floggle toggle
 n.— «I’ve been listening to The Navy Lark recently and noticed the writer occasional threw in some obscure but genuine naval slang for comic effect. One I’m a bit puzzled about is “floggle toggle.” It appears to be used as a placeholder name, similar to thingamajig and widget, to describe a device which if removed or incorrectly fitted will cause some some piece of equipment to fail, e.g. an engine to stop running or the ship’s guns to fire in the wrong direction.» —“Royal Navy slang” by David Bromage Usenet: alt.english.usage June 15, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 comment
  • The Floggle toggle was a part of an electrical gun firing mechanism gadget in an episode called “the gun mechanism” Series 1 ep 10
    the said floggle toggle was put back on the machine the wrong way round and was used as a running joke through the show

Further reading

Goody Two-Shoes (episode #1543)

She sells seashells by the seashore. Who is the she in this tongue twister? Some claim it’s the young Mary Anning, who went on to become a famous 19th-century British paleontologist. Dubious perhaps, but the story of her rise from seaside...

The @ Symbol and Its Many Noms De Internet

There are lots of creative names for the @, also known in English as the at-sign. In Denmark and Sweden, it’s sometimes called the snabel-a, or “elephant trunk.” In Italian, it’s a chiocciola, or “snail. In Greek...