dickover

plural dickovers

1. InternetvulgarA pop-up element that is rendered over the current web page presenting the user with an unwanted, unnecessary, and unavoidable interaction.

   2 more examples

   dickover n.: a modal panel, popover, or curtain presented by a website or app, deliberately obscuring its own content to frustrate the user with an unwanted, unnecessary, mandatory interaction; e.g. asking the user to accept “cookies”, subscribe to a newsletter, install the website’s mobile app, agree to terms of service, or anything else that the user couldn’t give two shits about.

   2026 May 29, John Gruber, “What Is a Dickover?”, in Daring Fireball

   The “dickover” is the scourge of the modern age. […] it is defined as “a modal panel, popover, or curtain presented by a website or app, deliberately obscuring its own content to frustrate the user”. Essentially, it is the thing (or more often, things) you have to click away in order to read the thing you wanted to read.

   2026 August 18, Stuart Heritage, “Dickovers, baggravation and botiquette: 18 new words to describe our tech hellscape”, in The Guardian