noddy
Americannoun
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noddies
plural
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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.
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a fool or simpleton; noodle.
noun
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any of several tropical terns of the genus Anous, esp A. stolidus ( common noddy ), typically having a dark plumage
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a fool or dunce
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of noddy
1520–30; perhaps noun use of obsolete noddy (adj.) silly. See nod, -y 1
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.
See Examples For:
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
The mayor may be and probably is a noddy, but his critics do not know why.
From The "Goldfish" by Arthur Cheney Train
The horses of the noddy, feeling no restraint from the reins, and terrified by the uproar, kicked up their heels at once, and bolted away, shooting the driver out of his den into a flowerpot.
From Sir Jasper Carew His Life and Experience by Charles James Lever
Innumerable birds of the noddy kind made this island their resting-place; so that I had reason to flatter myself with hopes of getting supplies in greater abundance than it had hitherto been in my power.
From A Narrative Of The Mutiny, On Board His Majesty's Ship Bounty; And The Subsequent Voyage Of Part Of The Crew, In The Ship's Boat by William Bligh
But a staff investigation reportedly found that no fake "noddies" had ever been broadcast.
From BBC ● May 25, 2025
Their modelling shows that if rats were removed from these 25 islands that could result in populations of lesser noddies, sooty terns and red-footed boobies recovering to nearly 24,000 breeding pairs -- an 18-fold increase.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2024
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
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
At noon, some noddies came so near to us that one of them was caught by hand....
From The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 6 by Ernest Hartley Coleridge
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