Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small figure of a person or animal, having a cloth body and hollow head, designed to be fitted over and manipulated by the hand.
- noun A figure having jointed parts animated from above by strings or wires; a marionette.
- noun A toy representing a human figure; a doll.
- noun One whose behavior is determined by the will of others.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A doll.
- noun A little figure of a person, moved by the fingers, or by cords or wires, in a mock drama; a marionette.
- noun Hence One who is actuated by the will of another; a tool: used in contempt.
- noun plural Toys; trinkets.
- noun The head-stock or the tail-stock of a lathe. See
lathe . - To dress as a doll; bedeck with finery.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A small image in the human form; a doll.
- noun A similar figure moved by the hand or by a wire in a mock drama; a marionette; a wooden actor in a play.
- noun One controlled in his action by the will of another; a tool; -- so used in contempt.
- noun (Mach.) The upright support for the bearing of the spindle in a lathe.
- noun Same as
Puppetman . - noun a puppet show.
- noun one who manages the motions of puppets.
- noun a mock drama performed by puppets moved by wires.
- noun a valve in the form of a circular disk, which covers a hole in its seat, and opens by moving bodily away from the seat while remaining parallel with it, -- used in steam engines, pumps, safety valves, etc. Its edge is often beveled, and fits in a conical recess in the seat when the valve is closed. See the valves shown in
Illusts. of Plunger pump, and Safety valve, underPlunger , andSafety .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any small model of a person or animal able to be moved by strings, rods or in the form of a
glove . - noun figuratively A person, country, etc, controlled by another.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a small figure of a person operated from above with strings by a puppeteer
- noun a person who is controlled by others and is used to perform unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else
- noun a doll with a hollow head of a person or animal and a cloth body; intended to fit over the hand and be manipulated with the fingers
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Things that you really wouldn't think about, like for example, you never use the word 'puppet'.
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All over the world, all over the Islamic world and the Arab world, it's seen as a blackmail against Iraq and tentative by the Americans to topple a government, the Iraqi government, and to throw it and to put what they call a puppet regime like what has been put in Kabul, what they consider being put in Kabul, the Karzai government.
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Afghan officials say they were deliberately bypassed in a concession to the Taliban, which has always refused to negotiate with what it labels the "puppet" Karzai government.
News 2012
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Afghan officials say they were deliberately bypassed in a concession to the Taliban, which has always refused to negotiate with what it labels the "puppet" Karzai government.
News 2012
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This was an unlucky speech on the present occasion, for it happened that every body, after having seen what he called my puppet-show, was precisely of this opinion.
Tales and Novels — Volume 02 Maria Edgeworth 1808
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The Hopi Sinom never authorized the establishment of the Hopi Tribal Council, which they referred to as a puppet government of the United States.
CounterPunch 2008
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The Hopi Sinom never authorized the establishment of the Hopi Tribal Council, which they refer to as a puppet government of the United States.
The NarcoSphere - 2008
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The Hopi Sinom never authorized the establishment of the Hopi Tribal Council, which they referred to as a puppet government of the United States.
CounterPunch 2008
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So you mean those imflammatory cartoons showing a hook-nosed ogre dangling an Uncle Sam puppet from a string are true?
Matthew Yglesias » Olmert Claims to Control US Foreign Policy 2009
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Seriously, it's perfect: With a pine body impervious to fangs, and a growing nose providing an ever-present stake, the little puppet is ready-made to kill the creatures of the night.
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