merry-andrew

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Persons who naïvely mistake me for a merry-andrew with an inflated pig’s bladder can never understand that I adore whichever tradition I am striving to follow,” he said in a 1980 interview.

From The New Yorker • Jul. 30, 2014

‘No; I don’t like those visitors of yours well enough to see you turned into a merry-andrew to please them.’

From Hopes and Fears or, scenes from the life of a spinster by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

So closely do the larches grow together, so white with moss, so stunted and old-looking, that it would have made a merry-andrew melancholy to walk among them.

From From Squire to Squatter A Tale of the Old Land and the New by Stables, Gordon

Beneath is a mountebank, exalted on a stage, eating fire to attract the public attention; while his merry-andrew behind is distributing his medicines.

From The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings With Descriptions, and a Comment on Their Moral Tendency by Trusler, John

And after a few efforts to better her condition she grew cautious, and hesitated discreetly before returning one of those ingenuous answers which, in the beginning, had made her the merry-andrew of the class.

From The Getting of Wisdom by Richardson, Henry Handel