dummy

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An imitation of a real or original object, intended to be used as a practical substitute.
2. n. A mannequin used in displaying clothes.
3. n. A figure of a person or an animal manipulated by a ventriloquist.
4. n. A stuffed or pasteboard figure used as a target.
5. n. Football A heavy stuffed cylindrical bag used for blocking and tackling practice.
6. n. A stupid person; a dolt.
7. n. A silent or taciturn person.
8. n. A person or an agency secretly in the service of another.
9. n. Printing One of a set of model pages with text and illustrations pasted into place to direct the printer. Also called dummy page.
10. n. Printing A set of bound blank pages used as a model to show the size and general appearance of a book being published.
11. n. Games The partner in bridge who exposes his or her hand to be played by the declarer.
12. n. Games The hand thus exposed.
13. n. Computer Science A character or other piece of information entered into a computer only to meet prescribed conditions, such as word length, and having no effect on operations.
14. adj. Simulating or replacing something but lacking its function: a dummy pocket.
15. adj. Serving as a front or cover for another: a dummy corporation.
16. adj. Games Played with a dummy.
17. adj. Computer Science Entered or provided only to meet prescribed conditions: a dummy variable.
18. v. Printing To make a model of (a publication or page).
19. dummy up Slang To keep silence; clam up.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who is dumb; a dumb person; a mute.
2. n. One who is silent; specifically, in theatrical, a person on the stage who appears before the lights, but has nothing to say.
3. n. One who or that which lacks the reality, force, function, etc., which it appears to possess; something that imitates a reality in a mechanical way or for a mechanical purpose. Specifically— Some object made up to deceive, as a sham package, a wooden cheese, an imitation drawer, etc.
4. n. In mech.:
5. n. A dumb-waiter.
6. n. A locomotive with a condensing-engine, and hence avoiding the noise of escaping steam: used especially for moving railroad-cars in the streets of a city, or combined in one with a passenger-car for local or street traffic.
7. n. The name given by firemen to one of the jets from the mains or chief water-pipes.
8. n. A hatters' pressing-iron.
9. n. In card-playing:
10. n. An exposed hand of cards, asin whist when three play.
11. n. A game of whist in which three play, the fourth hand being placed face up. One player, with this and his own hand, plays against the other two.
12. Silent; mute.
13. Sham; fictitious; feigned: as, a dummy watch.
14. n. Proofs of pages of composed type pasted down upon a larger leaf in proper order, to show the general arrangement of an intended book or pamphlet.
15. n. The dealer's partner at bridge.
16. n. In the game of rounce, an extra hand of 6 cards in the center of the table.
17. n. A person who is put forward (by interested parties in the background) in some capacity in connection with a matter in which he has no real concern or as to which he is the mere tool of his movers: for example, as an incorporater or a director of a bank, a railway, or other company, in order to satisfy some statutory requirement as to number, place of residence, or the like, or as in Australia, when the public lands were thrown open, one who made application for an allotment in his own name, but really on behalf of another who had already made his own ‘selection.’
18. n. A horse affected with dumminess, which follows an acute inflammation of the brain. See dumminess, 2.
19. To act as a dummy. See dummy, 6.

Wiktionary

1. n. A silent person; a person who does not talk.
2. n. An unintelligent person.
3. n. A figure of a person or animal used by a ventriloquist; a puppet.
4. n. Something constructed with the size and form of human, to be used in place of a person.
5. n. A deliberately nonfunctional device or tool used in place of a functional one.
6. n. card games A player whose hand is shown and is to be played from by another player.
7. n. UK A bodily gesture meant to fool an opposing player in sport; a feint.
8. n. linguistics A word serving only to make a construction grammatical.
9. n. programming An unused parameter or value.
10. v. To make a mock-up or prototype version of something, without some or all off its intended functionality.
11. v. To feint

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Silent; mute; noiseless; as a dummy engine.
2. adj. Fictitious or sham; feigned.
3. n. One who is dumb.
4. n. A sham package in a shop, or one which does not contain what its exterior indicates.
5. n. An imitation or copy of something, to be used as a substitute; a model; a lay figure; as, a figure on which clothing is exhibited in shop windows; a blank paper copy used to show the size of the future book, etc.
6. n. (Drama) One who plays a merely nominal part in any action; a sham character.
7. n. colloq. A thick-witted person; a dolt.
8. n. (Railroad) A locomotive with condensing engines, and, hence, without the noise of escaping steam; also, a dummy car.
9. n. (Card Playing) The fourth or exposed hand when three persons play at a four-handed game of cards.
10. n. A floating barge connected with a pier.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a person who does not talk
2. n. an ignorant or foolish person
3. adj. having the appearance of being real but lacking capacity to function
4. n. a cartridge containing an explosive charge but no bullet
5. n. a figure representing the human form
6. v. make a dummy of