Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A man who is short in stature.
  • noun A mannequin.
  • noun An anatomical model of the human body for use in teaching.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A little man; a dwarf; a pygmy.
  • noun A model of the human body, used for showing the structure, form, and position of the various organs, limbs, muscles, etc., or adapted and used for practising bandaging or for performing certain obstetrical operations, as delivery with the forceps.
  • noun An artists' model of the human figure. See lay-figure and manequin.
  • noun A non-oscine passerine bird of the subfamily Piprinæ.
  • Like a manikin; artificial.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A little man; a dwarf; a pygmy; a manakin.
  • noun A model of the human body, made of papier-mache or other material, commonly in detachable pieces, for exhibiting the different parts and organs, their relative position, etc.
  • noun A mannequin.

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

  • noun Alternative spelling of mannequin.
  • noun a short person
  • noun a life-size anatomical model used as a teaching aid

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a woman who wears clothes to display fashions
  • noun a person who is very small but who is not otherwise deformed or abnormal
  • noun a life-size dummy used to display clothes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dutch mannekijn, from Middle Dutch, diminutive of man, man; see man- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • I'd always wondered if there was a term for this kind of thing, and it turns out there is: 'manikin'.

    blind pigginess 2008

  • So I felt sorry for her, people passing her on the sidewalk like she was a manikin who needed a life but all she got was stillness, which is a form of nothing.

    Unaswered E-mails Over a Cup of Coffee and a Microwaved Danish David Woodruff 2011

  • Then it is something that you can also keep around after Halloween, this is something that every gamer would love to have set up in his theater room, you could order a cheap manikin and put the master chief costume on it for display all year round.

    Helmet Master | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles 2009

  • He walked like a manikin, living high and talking big.

    The Man 2010

  • Joanna at the wonderful Morbid Anatomy blog posted this exquisite ivory anatomical manikin, circa 1500-1700.

    Boing Boing 2008

  • One other oddity: Maddie wasn't stuck in her usual manikin mode.

    Who Do You Say I Am 2010

  • At times a manikin of light, at times in the shape of the mundane salamander that bore the same name, this was the eyes and ears of the mage who had conjured it.

    red dust Ryn Cricket 2010

  • Had the clumsy wheel-chair, heavy with its own momentum, sailed into space like one of those ridiculous flying contraptions in a James Bond film, the little manikin secure among his gadgets, ready to pull the lever and sport wings?

    She Closed Her Eyes 2010

  • If your clothes say who you are, you're a manikin.

    Philip Slater: Our Cuitural Ethos Flops Again 2009

  • Makes you wonder if there is a presidential manikin kept around for photo ops

    Makes you wonder if there is a presidential manikin kept around for photo ops Nomad 2009

Comments

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  • A small man; a dwarf or pygmy.

    September 28, 2008