noun
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short for carnival
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a person who works in a carnival
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of carny
First recorded in 1930–35; carn(ival) + -y 2
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:
The man is rhapsodically shameless—oafishly charismatic, memorably strange-looking—a cynic at heart, and a carny in spirit.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
I’m a carny, and I’ve left the tent.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 20, 2023
Depression-era carny turned scam artist Bradley Cooper tries to pull a fast one in Guillermo del Toro’s noir-ish 2021 thriller “Nightmare Alley.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2022
The story, which takes place in the late 1930s/early 1940s, is one of make-believe; it is set in the carny world where the wonders are, of course, not what they seem.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2021
How he just gave up and got a nice little white cottage some place and got a nice little low-paying job and lived unhappily ever after, because a carny isn't a healthy, well-adjusted life?
From Charley de Milo by Laurence M. Janifer
His principled defense of free speech shouldn’t preclude him from excluding the cranks and carnies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
His follow-up, “Nightmare Alley,” is a bleak tale of carnies, grifters and a dishonest society that creates a far more despairing portrait of the world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2021
Not obviously with actors because we're basically shiftless carnies you know.
From Fox News ● Oct. 22, 2019
His production of “Così” is set in a Coney Island-like seaside, among sideshows and carnies.
From New York Times ● May 19, 2017
With its warm weather and special zoning laws allowing carnies to keep midway rides and wild animals in their back yards, the town was the Hollywood of human oddities.
From Slate ● Dec. 1, 2012
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.
