Definition of dummy noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary



    BrE BrE//ˈdʌmi//
    ; NAmE NAmE//ˈdʌmi//
    (pl. dummies) Babies, Stupid, In the store
    jump to other results
  1. 1[countable] a model of a person, used especially when making clothes or for showing them in a shop window a tailor’s dummy a ventriloquist’s dummy see also mannequin See related entries: In the store
  2. 2[countable] a thing that seems to be real but is only a copy of the real thing The bottles of whisky on display are all dummies.
  3. 3[countable] (North American English, informal) a stupid person Don't just stand there, you dummy. See related entries: Stupid
  4. 4[countable] (in some sports) an occasion when you pretend to make a particular move and then do not do so
  5. 5[countable] (British English) (North American English pacifier) a specially shaped rubber or plastic object for a baby to suck Wordfinderbaby, birth, child, dummy, feed, incubator, nappy, pram, premature, teethe See related entries: Babies
  6. 6[uncountable] (in card games, especially bridge) the cards which are placed facing upwards on the table and which can be seen by all the players She played a jack from dummy.
  7. Word Origin late 16th cent.: from dumb + -y. The original sense was ‘a person who cannot speak’, then ‘an imaginary fourth player in whist’ (mid 18th cent.), whence ‘a substitute for the real thing’ and ‘a model of a human being’ (mid 19th cent.).
See the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary entry: dummy