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

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

It was his custom when in banter to drop from English to his native brogue like a merry-andrew.

From Lords of the North by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)

Dolce, our cook, the merry-andrew of the vessel, figured as a troubadour, in which capacity he sang several heart-thrilling melodies.

From Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume III (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. by Scherzer, Karl Ritter von

Even the school-boys left the merry-andrew and came to gaze, with wide-open eyes, at this tall, strange-looking old man.

From Biographical Stories (From: "True Stories of History and Biography") by Hawthorne, Nathaniel