Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A dunce or fool; a simpleton.
- n. Any of several terns of the genera Anous and Micranous, found in tropical waters and having a dark brown or black color with a white or gray head.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A stupid or silly person.
- n. Any of several stout-bodied, gregarious terns of the genera Anous and Procelsterna, found in tropical seas.
- n. A small two-wheeled vehicle drawn by a single horse.
- n. An inverted pendulum consisting of a short vertical flat spring which supports a rod having a bob at the top; used for detecting and measuring slight horizontal vibrations of a body to which it is attached.
- n. An old card game.
- n. A cutaway scene of a television interviewer nodding, used to cover an editing gap in an interview.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A simpleton; a fool.
- n.
- n. Any tern of the genus Anous, as Anous stolidus.
- n. The arctic fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). Sometimes also applied to other sea birds.
- n. An old game at cards.
- n. A small two-wheeled one-horse vehicle.
- n. An inverted pendulum consisting of a short vertical flat spring which supports a rod having a bob at the top; -- used for detecting and measuring slight horizontal vibrations of a body to which it is attached.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A simpleton; a fool.
- n. A large dark-colored tern or sea-swallow of the subfamily Sterninæ and the group Anoëæ or genus Anoüs, found on most tropical and warm-temperate sea-coasts: so called from their apparent stupidity.
- n. The murre, Lomvia troile.
- n. The ruddy duck, Erismatura rubida.
- n. An old game of cards, supposed to have been played like cribbage.
- n. The knave in this game.
- n. A kind of four-wheeled cab with the door at the back, formerly in use.
- To make a fool of.
- n. A device designed to show the oscillation of the support of a pendulum.
Etymologies
Examples
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126: Hauing nothing but the word noddy for my paines.
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Turned out Sage’s parents were historians, he said, so they first taught him the precursor to cribbage, a game called noddy.
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But Brewmasters Steve MacMillan and Jon Christensen want you to know more about what goes into your glass than just "dünkel," "triple-bock," "noddy" or "porter."
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Marry, sir, the letter, very orderly; having nothing but the word 'noddy' for my pains.
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_ Marry, sir, the letter, very orderly; having nothing but the word 'noddy' for my pains.
Two Gentlemen of Verona The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.]
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He makes great use of strategic pauses, dewy eyed, head-noddy moments in which he surveys the crowd with a sort of entitled awe and exchanges meaningful looks with Sambora, Bryan and Tico.
Jon Bon Jovi: 'I'm overweight. Drinking too much. Bored to tears'
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No imported fuel dependency, no silly "noddy car" image issues, plus there's the added advantage of that British/German confluence, which, ahem, has worked so well for the royals in the past…
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Theodora Richards has posed nude, and Jade Jagger loves nothing more than an Ibizan frolic in what English schhoolgirls used to call "the noddy."
Andy Pemberton: Keith Richards' Daughter Alexandra Embarrasses Dad by Posing Nude for French Playboy
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Similar pressures may be threatening the breeding colonies of red-footed booby of Half-Moon Caye, and of common noddy of Glover's Reef.
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Major seabird and waterbird colonies include those of red-footed booby Sula sula (3,000-4,000 individuals) on Half Moon Caye, brown booby Sula leucogaster on Man O'War Caye, and common noddy Anous stolidus on Glover's Reef.
hernesheir commented on the word noddy
(n): and old name for the card-board game of cribbage.
January 20, 2009
yarb commented on the word noddy
Property developer Sir Stuart Lipton, deputy chairman of Chelsfield Partners, added his voice to the criticism, telling the Thames Gateway Forum that the project is at a crossroads: "Will this be one of the biggest projects in UK history that has been dumbed down by Noddy architecture?" If it goes wrong, it could end up with "cheap" and "isolated" estates lacking facilities, he explained.
- "Will new towns repeat the same mistakes of high-rise housing?", Guardian.co.uk, 28.12.2008
December 29, 2008
sionnach commented on the word noddy
Webster's 1913:
# (n.) A simpleton; a fool.
# (n.) A small two-wheeled one-horse vehicle.
# (n.) An inverted pendulum consisting of a short vertical flat spring which supports a rod having a bob at the top; -- used for detecting and measuring slight horizontal vibrations of a body to which it is attached.
# (n.) An old game at cards.
# (n.) Any tern of the genus Anous, as A. stolidus.
# (n.) The arctic fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). Sometimes also applied to other sea birds.
October 22, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word noddy
Found while researching the etymological origins of noddypoop and poop-noddy. Acc. to OED, noddy by itself means:
1. A fool, a simpleton. Cf. NOD n.2 Now rare.
2. a. Any of several terns of the genera Anous and Procelsterna, mostly tropical and with dark plumage; esp. (more fully common noddy) A. stolidus. Also noddy bird, noddy tern.
b. Newfoundland and U.S. regional (north-east.). The northern fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis.
October 15, 2008
whichbe commented on the word noddy
A reaction shot of an interviewer that is recorded and inserted into video or film to disguise edits or to give the impression that an interviewer is listening to an interviewee. (Double-Tongued Dictionary)
May 18, 2008