Word: dummy Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From dumb + -y. Pacifier sense from dummy teat where dummy is in the sense of a nonfunctional replica. Pronunciation: /ˈdʌmi/ 1. A silent person; a person who does not talk. Labels: dated Example: 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! 2. A stupid person. Example: Don't be such a dummy! 3. A term of address. Labels: slang Example: Hey dummy, what's good wit chu? 4. A figure of a person or animal used by a ventriloquist; a puppet. 5. Something constructed with the size and form of a human, to be used in place of a person. Example: To understand the effects of the accident, we dropped a dummy from the rooftop. Example: "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!" 6. A person who is the mere tool of another; a man of straw. 7. A deliberately nonfunctional device or tool used in place of a functional one. Example: The hammer and drill in the display are dummies. Example: 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 […] 8. A pacifier; a plastic or rubber teat used to soothe or comfort a baby. Labels: Australia, Ireland, New-Zealand, UK Example: The baby wants her dummy. Example: 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. 9. A player whose hand is shown and is to be played from by another player. 10. A word serving only to make a construction grammatical. Example: The pronoun "it" in "It's a mystery why this happened" is a dummy. 11. An unused parameter or value. Example: If flag1 is false, the other parameters are dummies. 12. A feigned pass or kick or play in order to deceive an opponent. 13. A bodily gesture meant to fool an opposing player; a feint. Labels: UK Example: 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. 14. A newborn animal that is indifferent to stimulus and does not voluntarily move. Labels: attributive Example: a dummy calf, lamb, or foal 15. A fairy chess piece that cannot move or capture, but can be captured and used to skip moving another piece. Example: 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. Example: Everybody give the dummy a big round of applause.