ventriloquist's dummy
1
8.6
- noun
- /vɛnˈtrɪləkwɪsts ˈdʌmi/
:
muñeco de ventrílocuo
- During the performance, the comedian used a ventriloquist's dummy to engage the audience with funny dialogues.
- looks like a ventriloquist's dummy
Examples
-
" Black rivulets slithered from the corners of its mouth, giving it the look of a ventriloquist's dummy.
Fiction book (2000) -
Right outta that mouth I love... like a ventriloquist's dummy your brother is saying good-bye.
-
I'm laughing like a ventriloquist's dummy.
-
Rigger looks like a ventriloquist's dummy up there.
Blog text (34) -
I looked over to the right and I saw something move, and then I saw him sitting there by a big old maple with this ventriloquist's dummy.
Fiction book (1996) -
It was an old ventriloquist's dummy from the Trash and Treasure, blown out with everything else.
Fiction book (1996) -
Appropriately enough, his carrot hair and freckled cheeks always made him look like a ventriloquist's dummy.
Fiction book (2001) -
The magician pulled out a ventriloquist's dummy and made it seem like it was speaking on its own.
-
The children were fascinated by the ventriloquist's dummy that moved its mouth as the performer spoke.
Synonyms
178
1.9
A doll moved by hand or strings for shows
73
4.5
A life-size model of a person used to show clothes, practice medical care, or test crashes
How Realistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
ventriloquist's + dummy
The phrase is compositionally transparent: 'dummy' means a puppet or figure and the possessive 'ventriloquist's' indicates it belongs to or is used by a ventriloquist, so the combined meaning (a puppet used by a ventriloquist to create the illusion of speech) is directly derivable. Note that 'ventriloquist' is a less frequent lexical item and may be unknown to some B1 learners, but if a learner knows both constituents the MWE is predictable.
Etymology
Ventriloquist's dummy comes from the stage act where a performer makes a puppet look like it is talking. The word ventriloquist comes from old words meaning 'belly' and 'speak' because the performer keeps their lips still and makes the voice seem to come from the dummy, so the phrase means a puppet used to create that talking illusion.