Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In fowling, a duck, or an imitation of one, used as a decoy.
- noun A person acting as a decoy for other persons.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A duck used to lure wild ducks into a decoy; hence, a person employed to lure others into danger.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
duck used to lurewild ducks into adecoy . - noun by extension One employed to
lure others intodanger .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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One of these, Padre Doyaguez, seemed to be the decoy-duck of the establishment, and soon fastened upon one of our party, whose Protestant tone of countenance had probably caught his attention.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 22, August, 1859 Various
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So, trot off, old man, and take your decoy-duck with you, or I think its extremely likely you'll be tost in a blanket.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 327, January, 1843 Various
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The human beings had saved him only that they might use him as a decoy-duck.
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I'm only a decoy-duck, that a grebe-nest came floating toward the shallows where he was tied.
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Hearts-ease was about sixteen, and they looked upon her as a promising decoy-duck, but she was "just the purest flower of the prairies," he said, and so they beat and starved her in consequence, for not falling in with their views.
Elizabeth Visits America Elinor Glyn 1903
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He had swum so near the decoy-duck that his foot had caught in its string, and before he could get away the farmer had him fast.
Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets and Other Tales Ruth McEnery Stuart 1886
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The life of a decoy-duck was hard enough; but when one got accustomed to have its foot tied to the shore, and shots fired all around it, one grew almost to enjoy it.
Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets and Other Tales Ruth McEnery Stuart 1886
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Mammy Warren wanted yer -- not for love -- don't think no sech thing -- but jest 'cos she could make you a sort o' decoy-duck.
Sue, A Little Heroine L. T. Meade 1884
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Mammy Warren had used her as a decoy-duck in order to pursue her pickpocket propensities, yet still her little face was altogether on a different plane from the ordinary slum children.
Sue, A Little Heroine L. T. Meade 1884
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Mr. Baring was willing to let him off as a pigeon to be plucked, and to use him instead as an unconscious decoy-duck in getting rid of Die; not that Mr. Baring had an unnatural aversion to his daughter, but that she was a drag upon him both for the present and the future.
Girlhood and Womanhood The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes Sarah Tytler 1870
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