noun

Sherlock

SHURR-lok

noun

A detective, or (often sarcastic) a term for someone who has just pointed out something obvious.

""He's late again," she said. "No kidding, Sherlock.""

verb

To figure something out through careful deduction.

"He sherlocked the missing wallet down to a jacket pocket in seconds."

In computing, for a company to build a native feature into its operating system or app that replaces a similar feature previously offered only by third-party software.

"Developers worried Apple would sherlock their app's core feature in the next OS update."

How to Use Sherlock

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishNamed after the famous fictional detective; used for detective-like deduction, or sarcastically toward someone stating the obvious, and in tech circles for a platform swallowing a third-party feature.

Common mistake

"No sh*t, Sherlock" and similar sarcastic uses are informal — don't use in formal writing.

Word Forms

Sherlocked past tense, Sherlocks plural, Sherlocks singular

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"He's late again," she said. "No kidding, _____."

Etymology

From the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The computing sense comes from Apple's "Sherlock" search tool, which in 2002 absorbed features from a smaller rival program, Watson.

Rhymes for Sherlock

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