Fonzie touch

noun

Hitting an electrical appliance to make it work. Any similar rough treatment that proves successful.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

noun
  1. informalHitting an electrical appliance to make it work. Any similar rough treatment that proves successful.

    2005, Rocket Jones (archive). http://rocketjones.mu.nu/archives/2005_06.php I have to do that to get the door of my pickup truck open sometimes. - Rookie astronaut Donald Pettit after he used his Fonzie touch to open a hatch on the International Space Station

    4 more examples

    Often when something doesn't work for me, I just restart the computer and try again. Often this jars something loose, akin to the ole Fonzie touch.

    2003, adobe.premiere.windows http://groups.google.com/g/5387fef4/t/.../d/9e5aa65ce7fdcf57?hl=en&ie...8

    We wish we had the Fonzie touch — give it a little kick and voila, it's working. Unfortunately, printers don't like to be kicked.

    2005, Jesse M. Torres, Peter Sideris, Surviving PC Disasters, Mishaps, and Blunders, page 53

    2006, http://www.motoringfile.com/2005/08/24/the_mini_window_motor_issue/ I had the driver’s side window motor replaced about three weeks ago on my ‘03 MC. Last weekend, the passenger side started acting up, but I guess I don’t have the “Fonzie” touch — beating on the door panel didn’t do anything but hurt my hand.

    Usually, when things in the dashboard don't work, I just bang on it, and they start working again. This happened often with the speedometer. The Fonzie touch would not work for the radio.

    2007, Sporting News Magazine https://web.archive.org/web/20071112161716/http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=220608

Origin

From Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli in the 1974–1984 TV series Happy Days.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Fonzie touch. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Fonzie%20touch

MLA

“Fonzie touch.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Fonzie%20touch. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Fonzie touch,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Fonzie%20touch.

Source: Fonzie touch on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.