nodding donkey
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of nodding donkey
C20: so called from its shape and movement
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.
The field is more than a century old and contains some 10,000 "nodding donkey" rigs pumping away.
From The Guardian • Apr. 8, 2010
The main evidence of the town's petroleum past was an old-fashioned bobbing oil pump, known as a nodding donkey, which still stands in a parking lot near a bakery.
From BusinessWeek • Jan. 7, 2010
The nodding donkey, the dancing bear, the flannel rabbit with only one ear, stood stiffly on parade.
From Black-Eyed Susan by Phillips, Ethel Calvert
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.
