clay pigeon

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noun

Trapshooting, Skeet. a disk of baked clay or other material hurled into the air from a trap as a target.

Slang. a person in a situation likely to be taken advantage of by others.

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Origin of clay pigeon

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90

Words nearby clay pigeon

Claymation, clay mineral, claymore, claymore mine, claypan, clay pigeon, clay road, clay stone, Clayton, Clayton Antitrust Act, Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use clay pigeon in a sentence

Instead she played herself out, pigeon-holing herself into the very kind of characters she criticized Apatow for writing.
It’s Time to Stop Hating Katherine Heigl|Kevin Fallon|November 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But, together, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun delayed the Civil War for 40 years.
Election Day Is Scarier Than Halloween|P. J. O’Rourke|November 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Clay engineered the morally indefensible Missouri Compromise.
Election Day Is Scarier Than Halloween|P. J. O’Rourke|November 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST
From the 1820s to the 1850s, the upper house was dominated by Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John Calhoun.
Election Day Is Scarier Than Halloween|P. J. O’Rourke|November 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST

It just changed into something quite dark and unattractive with Clay, and was a unique moment in my artistic career.
Ron Perlman's Secret Suicide Attempt|William O’Connor|October 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The British had fired 143 cannon shot into the fort before the arrival of Gen. Clay.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology|Joel Munsell
Only the laborers on the plantations smoke small clay pipes.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce|E. R. Billings.
They use those with long, straight stems, and both their clay and porcelain pipes are of the finest form and finish.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce|E. R. Billings.
Papier maché buttons came in with Henry Clay's patent in 1778.
Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham|Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell
It is the custom in the English forts to make every Indian who comes to trade, a present of a clay pipe filled with tobacco.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce|E. R. Billings.

British Dictionary definitions for clay pigeon

clay pigeon

noun

a disc of baked clay hurled into the air from a machine as a target to be shot at

US slang a person in a defenceless position; sitting duck

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with clay pigeon

clay pigeon

A person easily duped or taken advantage of, as in You're a clay pigeon for all of those telephone fund-raisers. The term alludes to the clay pigeon of trapshooting, which replaced the use of live birds in this sport in the 1860s. Its transfer to figurative use in the first half of the 1900s probably is explained by the much older slang use of pigeon for “dupe.” Also see fall guy.

clay pigeon

Origin of clay pigeon

Words nearby clay pigeon

Words related to clay pigeon

How to use clay pigeon in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for clay pigeon

Other Idioms and Phrases with clay pigeon