gumby

American  

[guhm-bee] / ˈgʌm bi /

noun

plural

gumbies

1. Slang. an incompetent or inept person.

2. Trademark, Slang. anything that resembles or evokes the 1960s green claymation figure Gumby in shape, color, flexibility, or any of various other characteristics.

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adjective

1. Slang. characterized by incompetence or ineptitude.

2. Trademark, Slang. resembling or evoking the 1960s green claymation figure Gumby in shape, color, flexibility, or any of various other characteristics.

Other Word Forms

• gumby-like adjective

Example Sentences

Conan O’Brien compares him to Gumby and dances with him on his TBS talk show.

From Los Angeles Times

From “Gumby” to “Rudolph” to “Wallace and Gromit” to “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” stop motion is of all forms of animation most magical and in its real-space, three dimensional, handcrafted way the most like life, if not necessarily the most lifelike.

From Los Angeles Times

Though stop-motion filmmaking had existed for decades and clay was used in the 1950s to create animated characters like Gumby, directors and cinephiles credited Mr. Noyes’s rookie effort with reviving interest in the technique at a time when hand-drawn characters were more popular.

From New York Times

“The Adventures of Gumby” which premiered in 1957, was created by Art Clokey, an artist in Glendora.

From Los Angeles Times

This is, after all, a man who channeled the grandiose gestural acting of German expressionist films while starring in “Moonstruck” and was nearly fired from “Peggy Sue Got Married” for using a voice he had modeled on the Claymation sidekick Pokey from “Gumby.”

From New York Times