bells and whistles

English

Noun

bells and whistles (plural only)

1. (idiomatic) Extra features added for show rather than function; fancy additions or features.

   His new car has all the bells and whistles, but it doesn't move through traffic jams any faster.

   The bells and whistles do not impress me.

   I need a new phone, but I don’t want all those fancy bells and whistles on it!

Antonyms

• (extra features added for show rather than function): plain, no-frills, normal, ordinary, simple, unadorned

Synonyms

• (extra features added for show rather than function): gadgetry, trivialities

Translations

extra features added for show rather than function

• Bulgarian: финтифлюшки (bg) (fintiflyushki) pl
• Finnish: hienoudet (fi) pl
• Hebrew: רעש וצילצולים (he)

• Polish: bajery (pl) pl
• Russian: прибамбасы (ru) (pribambasy), навороты (ru) (navoroty), свистелки и перделки (ru) (svistelki i perdelki) (vulgar)

See also

• form over function
• all singing, all dancing