noddy
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈnɒdi/
ipa: /ˈnɑdi/
ipa: [-ɾi]
homophone: knotty
homophone: naughty (cot–caught merger, flapping)
rhymes: -ɒdi
Forms: form: noddies
Etymology: Noun sense 1 is possibly from nod (“to incline the head up and down; to gradually fall asleep”) + -y (suffix forming diminutive nouns or familiar names); or a shortening of noddypoll, an obsolete alteration of hoddypoll (“fumbling, inept person”).
The origin of noun sense 2 is uncertain; it is possibly derived from sense 1. Compare muggins (“fool, idiot; card game based on building in suits or matching exposed cards, the object being to get rid of one’s cards”).
The origin of the adjective is uncertain; it is possibly also from nod (verb) + -y (suffix meaning ‘of or relating to’ forming adjectives).
The verb is derived from noun sense 1.
Senses: examples: text: I graunt for my parte by fayth of my body / why where the deuyll is this horeſon nody
ref: 1534, John Heywood, A Play of Loue, […], [London]: […] W[illiam] Rastell, →OCLC, signature C.iii., recto:
text: Hum[phrey]. If it be ſo, my friend, you vſe me fine, / VVhat do you thinke I am? / Iasp[er]. An arrant noddie / Hum. A vvord of obliquie, novv by Gods bodie, / I'le tell thy maiſter for I knovv thee vvell.
ref: 1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, […], published 1613, →OCLC, Act II, signature [D4], recto:
text: Leo Decimus [Pope Leo X] that ſcoffing Pope, […] took an extraordinary delight in humoring of ſilly fellovves, and to put gulleries vpon them, […] he made ſoft fellovves ſtarke noddies, and ſuch as vvere fooliſh, quite mad before hee left them.
ref: 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Scoffes, Calumnies, Bitter Iests, How They Cause Melancholy”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 4, subsection 4, page 197:
text: VVere not Thoſe bleſſed days vvhen our Divines had Saleſmen, and Mechaniques for their Tryers; and the Laity a ſupercilious Company of Claſſical, and Congregational Noddys for the Inſpectours of our Lives and Manners: […]
ref: 1679, Roger L’Estrange, “[Who Brought the Late King to the Block]”, in An Answer to the Appeal from the Country to the City, London: […] M[ary] C[larke] for Henry Brome, […], →OCLC, page 25:
text: VVhy, vvhat a noddy have I been, to take this ſtrapper alvvays for a girl!
ref: 1794 December 6 (first performance), [Hannah] Cowley, The Town before You, a Comedy, […], London: […] G[eorge] Woodfall, for T[homas] N[orton] Longman, […], published 1795, →OCLC, Act V, scene [iii], page 84:
text: [T]hough I am but a simple noddy, / I think one Shakespear [William Shakespeare] puts the same thought in / The mouth of some one in his plays so doating, / Which many people pass for wits by quoting.
ref: 1823 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos VI.—VII.—and VIII., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto VII, stanza XXI, page 75:
text: At last the people in a body / To the Town Hall came flocking: / "'Tis clear," cried they, "our Mayor's a noddy; / And as for our Corporation—shocking[…]"
ref: 1842–1845, Robert Browning, “[Dramatic Romances and Lyrics.] The Pied Piper of Hamelin; a Child’s Story. […].”, in Poems […], new edition, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], published 1849, →OCLC, stanza III, page 307:
synonyms: word: addle-brain
word: addlehead
word: addle pate
word: airhead
word: baboon
word: beanbrain
word: beetlebrain
word: beetlehead
word: berk
word: bimbo
word: birdbrain
word: blockhead
word: blubberbrain
word: bonehead
word: Boeotian
word: boob
word: bozo
word: brainlet
word: brickhead
word: bubblehead
word: bubble brain
word: bufflehead
word: buffoon
word: Charlie
raw_tags: with "right" and/or "proper"
word: chowderhead
word: chucklehead
word: chump
word: cittern-head
word: clod
word: clodpate
word: clot
word: clown
word: crackhead
word: cretin
word: cuckoo
word: deadhead
word: dimbo
word: dim bulb
word: dimbus
word: dimwit
word: dingbat
word: ding dong
word: dingleberry
word: dingwad
word: dip
word: dipstick
word: doldrum
word: dolt
word: donut
word: doodle
word: doof
word: doofoid
word: doofus
word: dope
word: dork
word: drivel
word: drongo
word: drool bucket
word: dullard
word: dumb bunny
word: dumbbell
word: dumb cluck
word: dumbhead
word: dumble
word: dumbling
word: dumbnut
word: dumbo
word: dummkopf
word: dummy
word: dunce
word: dunderhead
word: dunderpate
word: eejit
word: fathead
word: featherbrain
word: fenderhead
word: fleabrain
word: fool
word: fopdoodle
word: galoot
word: gimboid
word: gomer
word: gonk
word: goober
word: goof
word: goofball
word: goofy
word: goose
word: goosecap
word: gorbuson
word: gudgeon
word: halfwit
word: ha'porth
word: hammerhead
word: idiot
word: ignoramus
word: imbecile
word: inbred
word: jackaninny
word: jellybrain
word: jerk
word: juggins
word: jughead
word: knothead
word: knucklehead
word: lackwit
word: lamebrain
word: log
word: loggerhead
word: lummox
word: lunk
word: lunkhead
word: maroon
word: meatball
word: meathead
word: mental midget
word: mome
word: momo
word: mongoloid
word: mongtard
word: monkey
word: moron
word: mouth breather
word: muggins
word: mushhead
word: muttonhead
word: mutt
word: nimrod
word: nincompoop
word: ninny
word: ninnyhammer
word: nit
word: nitwit
word: noddy
word: noodlehead
word: numbskull
word: oaf
word: peabrain
word: peagoose
word: pillock
word: pigwidgeon
word: pinhead
word: plank
word: plonker
word: prat
word: put
word: putz
word: retard
word: sap
word: saphead
word: schmo
word: silly
word: simp
word: simpleton
word: snapperhead
word: sot
word: space cadet
word: spanner
word: stupe
word: stupid
word: stupid-head
word: tomfool
word: tard
word: thickhead
word: thickskull
word: thicko
word: tonto
word: toolbox
word: tosspot
word: turkey
word: twit
word: wally
word: wantwit
word: wazzer
word: wazzock
word: witless wonder
word: yo-yo
word: zany
word: Vulgar:
word: ass
word: assclown
word: asshat
word: asshead
word: asstard
word: asswipe
word: buttbreath
word: dildo
word: dipshit
word: donkey dick
word: Alternative spelling of dumbass.
word: dumbfuck
word: dumbfucker
word: dumbshit
word: farthead
word: fuck-knuckle
word: fucktard
word: fuckwit
word: jackass
word: peckerhead
word: shitbrain
word: shithead
word: shitneck
word: shitwit
word: twat
glosses: A silly or stupid person; a fool, an idiot.
examples: text: The ſpout of ſport, and follies turtle Doue, / Noddie turn'd vp, all made, yet loſe the tricke.
ref: 1611, Glareanus Vadianus [pseudonym], “A Sceleton or Bare Anatomie of the Punctures and Iunctures of Mr. Thomas Coryate of Odcombe, […]”, in Thomas Coryate [i.e., Thomas Coryat], Coryats Crudities Hastily Gobled Vp in Five Moneths Trauells […], London: […] W[illiam] S[tansby for the author], →OCLC, signature l, verso, page 157:
text: You vvant four, and I tvvo, and my Deal: Novv, Knave noddy—no, Hearts be Trumps.
ref: 1757 February 5 (first performance), [Samuel] Foote, The Author; a Comedy, […], London: […] R. Francklin, […]; and sold by P. Vaillant, […], published 1757, →OCLC, Act II, page 27:
topics: card-games
games
glosses: In full knave noddy: the jack or knave playing card.
examples: text: [W]ell let not me take you at Noddy anie more, leaſt I preſent you to the pariſh for a gamſter, this is the ninth ſet that you haue loſt, and yet you will not leaue off.
ref: [1589?], Cutbert Curry-knaue [pseudonym; Thomas Nashe], An Almond for a Parrat, or Cutbert Curry-knaues Almes. […], [London]: […] [Eliot’s Court Press], →OCLC, folio 18, verso:
text: Let 'hem embrace more frugal pastimes. VVhy ſhould not the thriftie and right vvorſhipfull game of Poſt and payre content 'hem? Or the vvittie inuention of Noddie, for counters? or God make them rich, at the Tables? but Masking, and Reuelling?
ref: 1612 January 16 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Love Restored, in a Masque at Court, […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, page 992:
text: [H]e told me he had him at command when he was a page, but by plaieing to [too] much at primeroe and noddy he loſt Time and his monie to [too].
ref: a. 1634 (date written), John Day, “Peregrinatio Scholastica or Learneinges Pillgrimage […]. The Twentithe Tractate.”, in A[rthur] H[enry] Bullen, editor, The Works of John Day […], London: […] Chiswick Press […], published 1881, →OCLC, page 77:
text: An old game of cards, conjectured to be the same as cribbage. […] Noddy is now played as follows: Any number can play—the cards are all dealt out—the elder hand plays one, (of which he hath a pair or a prial if a good player)—saying or singing "there's a good card for thee," passing it to his right hand neighbour—the person next in succession who holds its pair covers it, saying "there's still a better than he;" and passes both onward—the person holding the third of the sort (ace, six, queen, or what not) puts it on with "there's the best of all three:" and the holder of the fourth crowns all with the emphatic—"And there is Niddy-Noddeee."—He wins the tack, turns it down, and begins again. He who is first out receives from his adversaries a fish (or a bean, as the case may be) for each unplayed card.
ref: 1847, James Orchard Halliwell, “NODDY”, in A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century. […], volume II (J–Z), London: John Russell Smith, […], →OCLC, page 579:
topics: card-games
games
glosses: In full noddy-fifteen: a certain card game related to cribbage.
examples: text: I left her at Cardes, ſhee'll ſit vp till you come, becauſe ſhee'll haue you play a game at Noddie; […]
ref: 1601–1602 (date written), attributed to Thomas Dekker and/or Thomas Middleton, Blurt Master-Constable. Or The Spaniards Night-walke. […], London: […] [Edward Allde] for Henry Rockytt, […], published 1602, →OCLC, signature E2, verso:
topics: card-games
games
glosses: In full noddy-fifteen: a certain card game related to cribbage.
Synonym of sexual intercourse.
synonyms: word: sexual intercourse
Derived terms: word: hoddy-noddy
word: niddy-noddy
english: silly or stupid person
translation: silly or stupid person
word: nod
word: noddify
word: noddypoop
word: noddyship
word: poop-noddy
word: supernodical
word: supernodify