merry-andrew
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of merry-andrew
1665–75; merry + Andrew, generic use of the proper name
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Persons who naïvely mistake me for a merry-andrew with an inflated pig’s bladder can never understand that I adore whichever tradition I am striving to follow,” he said in a 1980 interview.
From The New Yorker
The footmen in yellow were his tumblers and trumpeters, and those in blue his merry-andrew, his apothecary, and his spokesman.
From Project Gutenberg
Cousin Thompson—the ex-grocer of Haggart's Cross—considered swallow-tails and white chokers to be fanciful nonsense: he would not make a merry-andrew of himself to please anybody.
From Project Gutenberg
But his chief delight was in pursuing the profession of a juggler, mountebank, or merry-andrew, among the lowest rabble.
From Project Gutenberg
If I were to charge a battery, I’d only look like a merry-andrew after all; men will not respect what is only laughable.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
