adj
Meaning 1
Foolish, silly, stupid.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: England, regional
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
noddy
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈnɒdi/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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General-American: /ˈnɑdi/
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General-American: [-ɾi]
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General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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homophone: knotty
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homophone: naughty (cot–caught merger, flapping)
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rhymes with -ɒdi
adj
Meaning 2
Drowsy, sleepy.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A silly or stupid person; a fool, an idiot.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: addle-brain, addlehead, addle pate, airhead, baboon, beanbrain, beetlebrain, beetlehead, berk, bimbo, birdbrain, blockhead, blubberbrain, bonehead, Boeotian, boob, bozo, brainlet, brickhead, bubblehead, bubble brain, bufflehead, buffoon, Charlie, chowderhead, chucklehead, chump, cittern-head, clod, clodpate, clot, clown, crackhead, cretin, cuckoo, deadhead, dimbo, dim bulb, dimbus, dimwit, dingbat, ding dong, dingleberry, dingwad, dip, dipstick, doldrum, dolt, donut, doodle, doof, doofoid, doofus, dope, dork, drivel, drongo, drool bucket, dullard, dumb bunny, dumbbell, dumb cluck, dumbhead, dumble, dumbling, dumbnut, dumbo, dummkopf, dummy, dunce, dunderhead, dunderpate, eejit, fathead, featherbrain, fenderhead, fleabrain, fool, fopdoodle, galoot, gimboid, gomer, gonk, goober, goof, goofball, goofy, goon, goose, goosecap, gorbuson, gudgeon, halfwit, ha'porth, hammerhead, idiot, ignoramus, imbecile, inbred, jackaninny, jellybrain, jerk, juggins, jughead, knothead, knucklehead, lackwit, lamebrain, log, loggerhead, lummox, lunk, lunkhead, maroon, meatball, meathead, mental midget, mome, momo, mongoloid, mongtard, monkey, moron, mouth breather, muggins, mushhead, muttonhead, mutt, nimrod, nincompoop, ninny, ninnyhammer, nit, nitwit, noddy, noodlehead, numbskull, oaf, peabrain, peagoose, pillock, pigwidgeon, pinhead, plank, plonker, prat, put, putz, retard, sap, saphead, schmo, silly, simp, simpleton, smooth brain, snapperhead, sot, space cadet, spanner, stupe, stupid, stupid-head, tard, thickhead, thickskull, thicko, tomfool, tonto, toolbox, tosspot, turkey, twit, wally, wantwit, wazzer, wazzock, witless wonder, yo-yo, zany, Vulgar:, ass, assclown, asshat, asshead, asstard, asswipe, buttbreath, dildo, dipshit, donkey dick, Alternative spelling of dumbass., dumbfuck, dumbfucker, dumbshit, farthead, fuck-knuckle, fucktard, fuckwit, jackass, peckerhead, shitbrain, shithead, shitneck, shitwit, twat
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
In full knave noddy: the jack or knave playing card.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, historical
Topics: card-games, games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
In full noddy-fifteen: a certain card game related to cribbage.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical, uncountable
Topics: card-games, games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
In full noddy-fifteen: a certain card game related to cribbage.
Synonym of sexual intercourse.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly, countable, historical, obsolete, slang, uncountable
Topics: card-games, games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: sexual intercourse
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
Any of several stout-bodied, gregarious terns of the genus Anous found in tropical seas, especially the brown noddy or common noddy (Anous stolidus).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
A small two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, Scotland, historical
Topics: road, transport
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 9
Synonym of fellatio.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Multicultural-London-English, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: fellatio
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 10
Synonym of northern fulmar (“an Arctic seabird, Fulmarus glacialis”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Newfoundland, Northeastern, US
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: northern fulmar
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 11
A cutaway scene of a television interviewer nodding at the person being interviewed (or sometimes the interviewee nodding at the interviewer), often used to cover an editing gap in an interview.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, informal
Topics: broadcasting, media, television
Examples
- Noddies are often filmed after the interview in question has finished.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: nodder, noddy headshot, noddy-shot, nod shot
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 12
In clockmaking and watchmaking: an inverted pendulum consisting of a short, vertical, flat spring which supports a rod having a bob at the top, which is used for detecting and measuring slight horizontal vibrations of a body to which it is attached.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 13
In at noddy: a state of being asleep.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, rare
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 14
Synonym of noddify (“to make (someone) into a noddy (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1), to make a fool of”)
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, rare, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: noddify
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
Noun etymology 1 sense 1 is possibly from nod (“to incline the head up and down; to gradually fall asleep”) + -y (suffix forming diminutive nouns or familiar names); or a shortening of noddypoll, an obsolete alteration of hoddypoll (“fumbling, inept person”). The origin of noun etymology 1 sense 2 is uncertain; it is possibly derived from etymology 1 sense 1. Compare muggins (“fool, idiot; card game based on building in suits or matching exposed cards, the object being to get rid of one’s cards”). The origin of the adjective is uncertain; it is possibly also from nod (verb) + -y (suffix meaning ‘of or relating to’ forming adjectives). The verb is derived from noun etymology 1 sense 1.
From nod (“to incline the head up and down; to gradually fall asleep”) + -y (suffix forming diminutive nouns or familiar names; and meaning ‘of or relating to’ forming adjectives). Noun etymology 2 sense 1 (“tern of the genus Anous”) possibly refers to the nodding behaviour of the birds during courtship. Etymology 2 sense 3 (“fellatio”) refers to the nodding motion of the head of a person performing the sex act. Etymology 2 sense 5 (“cutaway scene of a television interviewer nodding”) was coined by the English cultural theorist and media scholar John Fiske (1939–2021) in 1987. Etymology 2 sense 6.2 (“state of being asleep”) is possibly a pun on etymology 1, noun sense 2.2.1 (“sexual intercourse”).
Across languages
Translations
10 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: морска лястовица (morska ljastovica) — bird of the genus Anous
- Catalan: nodi — bird of the genus Anous
- Dhivehi: މާރަނގަ (māranga) — bird of the genus Anous
- Finnish: ruskotiira — bird of the genus Anous
- Finnish: tuhkatiira (Procelsterna) — bird of the genus Anous
- Russian: глупая крачка (glupaja kračka) — bird of the genus Anous
- Finnish: kiesit — small two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse
- Finnish: välikuva nyökyttelystä — cutaway scene of a television interviewer nodding
- Finnish: kuuntelukuva — cutaway scene of a television interviewer nodding
- Spanish: ademán en corte — cutaway scene of a television interviewer nodding