shtick

noun

ˈshtik 

variants or less commonly schtick or shtik

1

: a usually comic or repetitious performance or routine : bit

2

: one's special trait, interest, or activity : bag

he's alive and well and now doing his shtick out in Hollywood

—Robert Daley

shticky

ˈshti-kē 

adjective

Synonyms

• act
• bit
• number
• routine
• turn

Examples of shtick in a Sentence

That joke is part of his shtick.

Sports are just not my shtick.

Recent Examples on the Web

DeSantis’ whole shtick is railing against trans people and gay people and African American history. —Keli Goff, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 May 2023

And the rest of the film consists of the usual shtick: Cole is wowed by Sadie’s fighting and shooting abilities amid a series of uninspired action set pieces, and the honey man eventually grows a pair and whoops some ass. —Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone, 21 Apr. 2023

And this is not a matter of insincerity, as if shtick were masking a hidden core of authenticity; rather, performance emerges as the very essence of social life and of self-recognition. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2023

Pee-wee, beneath his shtick, was always real, or real enough. —Bruce Handy, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2023

John Mulaney and his whole eternally youthful, endlessly upbeat, admirably dapper shtick? —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 July 2023

Since the earliest days of this magazine, when psychoanalysis was a relatively new shtick, analysts and their patients have been a cartoon staple. —The New Yorker, 10 July 2023

In fact all the contestants should have some similar kind of shtick, just as many teams do in dugouts. —Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 10 July 2023

Insomnia Cookies was the first in the market, bringing its late-night delivery shtick to a Broad Ripple location about 11 years ago. —The Indianapolis Star, 5 July 2023

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Word History

Etymology

Yiddish shtik pranks, literally, piece, from Middle High German stücke, from Old High German stucki; akin to Old English stycce piece, Old High German stoc stick — more at stock entry 1

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined at sense 1