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
This last mentioned person had been bred with an apothecary, and sometimes travelled the country in the high capacity of a quack doctor, at others, in the more humble station of a merry-andrew.
From Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences by Hayward, Arthur L.
Cousin Thompson—the ex-grocer of Haggart's Cross—considered swallow-tails and white chokers to be fanciful nonsense: he would not make a merry-andrew of himself to please anybody.
From Mrs. Thompson A Novel by Maxwell, W. B. (William Babington)
If I were to charge a battery, I'd only look like a merry-andrew after all; men will not respect what is only laughable.
From Maurice Tiernay Soldier of Fortune by Lever, Charles James
A merry-andrew at a country town in England, during the Whitsuntide holidays, never excited so great a stir as did the departure of the travellers from the town of Wow.
From Lander's Travels The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa by Huish, Robert
