switcheroo

plural switcheroos · alternative switcharoo

1. CanadaUSinformalA sneaky, unexpected, or clever swap or exchange.

   The Manhattan Theater Club has pulled a switcheroo, delaying a planned production of Gone Home, by John Corwin, and replacing it with Four, by the 26-year-old playwright Christopher Shinn.

   2001 December 21, Jesse McKinley, “On Stage and Off”, in New York Times, retrieved 27 Jul 2012

   3 more examples

   In a corporate merger, it is usually the big company that buys a smaller one. Last week Boston's up & coming Tracerlab, Inc. pulled a switcheroo. Tracerlab, which grossed only $1,700,000 last year, bought the much bigger ($8,000,000 gross) Kelley-Koett Mfg. Co.

   1951 April 30, “Business & Finance: Switcheroo”, in Time, archived from the original on 29 Sep 2012

   When you are dealing with American presidents, you always have to watch for the old switcheroo. Lyndon Johnson opposed Barry Goldwater's "extremism" on Vietnam, then proceeded to try to bomb Hanoi back into the stone age. Richard Nixon opposed price and wage controls, until he suddenly adopted them.

   1977 April 18, Don McGillivray, “Carter, true to form, pulls the ‘switcheroo’”, in Montreal Gazette, retrieved 27 Jul 2012, page 22

   Elsewhere, it’s a ‘switcheroo’ ([Kevin] Kelly’s word, not mine) that will lend technology the working status of a vital force that, like ‘nature’, operates outside the reach of social imperatives.

   1997, J. J. King, “The Right Connections: Tea with Kevin Kelly”, in Mute, volume 1, number 8, →ISSN

present singular third person switcheroos · participle present switcherooing · participle past switcherooed · past switcherooed · alternative switcharoo

1. transitiveuncommonTo swap or exchange surreptitiously.

   Another day, the magic wind came and switcherooed Katie into a hairdresser named Sparkle.

   2013, Nancy Krulik, All's Fair, Penguin, →ISBN