noddy

American  

[nod-ee] / ˈnɒd i /

noun

noddies plural

1. any of several dark-bodied terns of the genera Anous and Micranous found about the coasts and islands in warm seas of both the New and Old Worlds, often so tame as to seem stupid.

2. a fool or simpleton; noodle.

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noddy ¹ British  

/ ˈnɒdɪ /

noun

1. any of several tropical terns of the genus Anous, esp A. stolidus ( common noddy ), typically having a dark plumage

2. a fool or dunce

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noddy ² British  

/ ˈnɒdɪ /

noun

1. (usually plural) television film footage of an interviewer's reactions to comments made by an interviewee, used in editing the interview after it has been recorded

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noddy ³ British  

/ ˈnɒdɪ /

adjective

1. informal very easy to use or understand; simplistic

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• noddies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of noddy

1520–30; perhaps noun use of obsolete noddy (adj.) silly. See nod, -y ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

noddy noddies

He captured this lesser noddy caught in a collosal spider's net on the Seychelles island.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2013

We saw bonito tuna in schools jumping while noddy terns dove into the water.

From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2011

—Ay but, she thinks you are an arrant noddy.

From John Lyly by Wilson, John Dover

The mayor may be and probably is a noddy, but his critics do not know why.

From The "Goldfish" by Train, Arthur Cheney

M. Durand, our voiturier, attended accordingly with one of his portly mares harnessed to a sort of cabriolet, very much resembling an Irish noddy.

From Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone Made During the Year 1819 by Hughes, John

But a staff investigation reportedly found that no fake "noddies" had ever been broadcast.

From BBC ● May 25, 2025

And if vegetation was restored to three quarters of these islands' surface area then that could lead to more than 280,000 breeding pairs of lesser noddies, sooty terns and red-footed boobies.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2024

They compared reefs next to islands with thriving populations of seabirds, such as red-footed boobies, sooty terns and lesser noddies, against reefs next to islands with few seabirds.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 6, 2023

There are also nesting colonies of roughly 100,000 sooty terns, smaller groups of great frigatebirds, black and brown noddies, white terns, and tropicbirds.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 27, 2020

All the rest of the island was covered with the eggs and young ones of the terns and noddies.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. by Various