Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun idiomatic A person who clowns publicly; a buffoon; an entertainer's assistant.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Originally associated with a specific act at Bartholomew Fair; later said to have come from the name of Andrew Boorde.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Merry Andrew.

Examples

  • While he was regarded by average onlookers as little better than a "Merry Andrew," a public shocker, doing feats before the multitude to still the heart and freeze the blood, those whose fortune it was to know him intimately realized him to be a man of the most serious purpose, with a great faith in the future of aerial navigation.

    The Red-Blooded Heroes of the Frontier Edgar Beecher Bronson

  • Besides being "Andrew the Unerring," and a "Merry Andrew," he was also the "Tailor's Andrew," a man in short upon whom a nickname sat comfortably.

    Pictures Every Child Should Know A Selection of the World's Art Masterpieces for Young People Mary Schell Hoke Bacon 1902

  • Alas, Merry Andrew long ago left the rational world behind, writing articles such as this and employing his beagle as fact checker.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • For some real Michael Kidd, here's the big number from the only movie he directed, Merry Andrew with Danny Kaye.

    Michael Kidd Jaime J. Weinman 2008

  • For some real Michael Kidd, here's the big number from the only movie he directed, Merry Andrew with Danny Kaye.

    Archive 2008-01-01 Jaime J. Weinman 2008

  • From the movie Merry Andrew which was on TCM last week, starring Danny Kaye and directed by Michael Kidd.

    The Square Of The Hypotenuse of a Right Triangle Is Equal To the Sum of the Squares of the Two Adjacent Sides Jaime J. Weinman 2007

  • From the movie Merry Andrew which was on TCM last week, starring Danny Kaye and directed by Michael Kidd.

    Archive 2007-07-01 Jaime J. Weinman 2007

  • An odd figure, representing a Merry Andrew, took my hand, and said, I had the most piquant wit he had met with that night: “And, friend,” said he, “let us be better acquainted!”

    Pamela 2006

  • And from the Danny Kaye movie Merry Andrew, "The Sum of the Hypotenuse" -- fun and educational:

    Archive 2006-02-01 Jaime J. Weinman 2006

  • Instead, therefore, of answering my landlady, the puppet-show man ran out to punish his Merry Andrew; and now the moon beginning to put forth her silver light, as the poets call it (though she looked at that time more like a piece of copper), Jones called for his reckoning, and ordered Partridge, whom my landlady had just awaked from a profound nap, to prepare for his journey; but

    The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling 2004

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.