dummy
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdʌmi/
rhymes: -ʌmi
Forms: form: dummies
form: dumbie
form: dumby
Etymology: From dumb + -y. Pacifier sense from dummy teat where dummy is in the sense of a nonfunctional replica.
Senses: examples: text: The man's name […] was engraved in the centre, and beneath this, written in ink with the same elaborate precision as the engraving, there was a brief message.
I am a deaf-mute, but I read the lips and understand what is said to me. Please do not shout.
 […] Singer looked very carefully at his lips when he spoke—he had noticed that before. But a dummy!
ref: 1940, Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter:
synonyms: dumby
coordinate_terms: mute
glosses: A silent person; a person who does not talk.
examples: text: Don't be such a dummy!
synonyms: dumby
dumdum
coordinate_terms: half-wit
idiot
glosses: A stupid person.
examples: text: Hey dummy, what's good wit chu?
synonyms: dude
bro
coordinate_terms: stupid
qualifier: African-American Vernacular; Baltimore; African-American Vernacular; Baltimore
glosses: A term of address.
glosses: A figure of a person or animal used by a ventriloquist; a puppet.
examples: text: To understand the effects of the accident, we dropped a dummy from the rooftop.
text: "There's a remedy, it does try one, but never mind," said Gubjor; "I shall make a dummy baby, which I shall bury in the churchyard, and then the dead will believe they have got the child, take my word, they won't know but what it is the real baby!"
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 304:
synonyms: mannequin
marionette
glosses: Something constructed with the size and form of a human, to be used in place of a person.
glosses: A person who is the mere tool of another; a man of straw.
examples: text: The hammer and drill in the display are dummies.
text: The second method was to use two loadometers under the wheels of one axle, mounting the wheels of the other axle on what we called "equalizing blocks" or "dummies." By that method the two axles are brought into the same horizontal plane […]
ref: 1950, National Bureau of Standards Miscellaneous Publication, page 138:
glosses: A deliberately nonfunctional device or tool used in place of a functional one.
examples: text: The baby wants her dummy.
text: Then on the fifth day, at the first sleep of the day, remove the dummy and follow my settling guide for your baby′s age. You should throw all her dummies in the bin to ensure you are not tempted to use them again – even outside sleep times.
ref: 2006, Tizzie Hall, Save Our Sleep: A Parents′ Guide Towards Happy, Sleeping Babies from Birth to Two Years, MacMillan, published 2009, page 200:
text: No Fairy baby has ever been seen to suck its thumb or to use a dummy.
ref: 2008, Bern, Bern's Fairy Tales, page 15:
text: We′ve found that going cold turkey works best – you check that your baby isn't ill or teething, then throw all dummies away. When your baby cries for her dummy, you can look her in the eye and say, ‘It′s gone,’ and really mean it.
ref: 2011, Simone Cave, Caroline Fertleman, Baby to Toddler Month by Month, page 85:
synonyms: word: binky
word: bink
word: bo-bo
word: comforter
word: dodie
word: dummy
word: nookie
word: paci
word: piece
word: pippy
word: soother
glosses: A pacifier; a plastic or rubber teat used to soothe or comfort a baby.
topics: bridge
card-games
games
glosses: A player whose hand is shown and is to be played from by another player.
examples: text: The pronoun "it" in "It's a mystery why this happened" is a dummy.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A word serving only to make a construction grammatical.
examples: text: If flag1 is false, the other parameters are dummies.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: An unused parameter or value.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
rugby
soccer
sports
glosses: A feigned pass or kick or play in order to deceive an opponent.
examples: text: Raul Meireles was the victim of the home side's hustling on this occasion giving the ball away to the impressive David Vaughan who slipped in Taylor-Fletcher. The striker sold Daniel Agger with the best dummy of the night before placing his shot past keeper Pepe Reina.
ref: 2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, “Blackpool 2 - 1 Liverpool”, in BBC:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
synonyms: juke
glosses: A bodily gesture meant to fool an opposing player; a feint.
examples: text: a dummy calf, lamb, or foal
glosses: A newborn animal that is indifferent to stimulus and does not voluntarily move.
examples: text: In Monochromatic chess moves are only allowed between cells of the same colour. Thus the kings are reduced to ferses, the rooks to dabbabariders, and the knights to dummies. […] The fers and camel can reach all the cells of one colour. The others are more restricted; the dummy cannot move at all, and the commuter can only move back and forth between two cells.
ref: 2010 August 21, G. P. Jelliss, “Simple Chess Variants”, in Mayhematics, pages 4, 9:
text: Everybody give the dummy a big round of applause.
ref: 2018 October 12, aabicus, “My 7 Favorite Fairy Chess Pieces”, in The Daily SPUF:
topics: board-games
chess
games
glosses: A fairy chess piece that cannot move or capture, but can be captured and used to skip moving another piece.
Derived terms: beat the dummy
chuck a dummy
crash test dummy
dumminess
dummy bid
dummy bidder
dummy board
dummy car
dummy foal
dummy foal syndrome
dummy half
dummy it
dummy light
dummymander
dummy out
dummy pronoun
dummy-proof
dummy run
dummy scissors
dummy spit
dummy subject
dummy text
dummy variable
dummy whist
sell the dummy
spit the dummy
tailor's dummy
Related terms: sense: silent person
word: dumb
sense: stupid person
word: dumb
word: dud
word: fake
word: feint