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 • Jul. 30, 2014
‘No; I don’t like those visitors of yours well enough to see you turned into a merry-andrew to please them.’
From Hopes and Fears or, scenes from the life of a spinster by Yonge, Charlotte Mary
In one part of the street there was a puppet-show with a ridiculous merry-andrew, who kept both grown people and children in a roar of laughter.
From Biographical Stories (From: "True Stories of History and Biography") by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
As he did so he ran against a merry-andrew who thrust a long printed sheet in his hand.
From The Valley of Decision by Wharton, Edith
Bobèche, a French theatrical clown, under the Empire and the Restoration, son of an upholsterer of the St. Antoine faubourg, the type of the merry-andrew at country fairs.
From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by Nuttall, P. Austin
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.
