PUPPET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does puppet mean? 

• PUPPET (noun)
  The noun PUPPET has 3 senses:

1. a small figure of a person operated from above with strings by a puppeteer

2. a person who is controlled by others and is used to perform unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else

3. 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

  Familiarity information: PUPPET used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PUPPET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small figure of a person operated from above with strings by a puppeteer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

marionette; puppet

Hypernyms ("puppet" is a kind of...):

figure (a model of a bodily form (especially of a person))

Derivation:

puppeteer (one who operates puppets or marionettes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who is controlled by others and is used to perform unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

creature; puppet; tool

Hypernyms ("puppet" is a kind of...):

slave (a person who is owned by someone)

Sense 3

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("puppet" is a kind of...):

doll; dolly (a small replica of a person; used as a toy)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "puppet"):

glove doll; glove puppet; hand puppet (a puppet with a cloth body and hollow head; fits over the hand)

Derivation:

puppeteer (one who operates puppets or marionettes)

 Context examples 

They knew what was never printed in the newspapers—the wires and strings and the hidden hands that made the puppets dance.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And Miss Ingram had looked down at her with a mocking air, and exclaimed, "Oh, what a little puppet!"

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The strong, masterful personality of Holmes dominated the tragic scene, and all were equally puppets in his hands.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had pitched, as I have said, against the bulwarks, where he lay like some horrible, ungainly sort of puppet, life-size, indeed, but how different from life's colour or life's comeliness!

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“It is the desire that decides. Here is a man who wants to, say, get drunk. Also, he doesn’t want to get drunk. What does he do? How does he do it? He is a puppet. He is the creature of his desires, and of the two desires he obeys the strongest one, that is all. His soul hasn’t anything to do with it. How can he be tempted to get drunk and refuse to get drunk? If the desire to remain sober prevails, it is because it is the strongest desire. Temptation plays no part, unless—” he paused while grasping the new thought which had come into his mind—“unless he is tempted to remain sober.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The younger ruler had sat listlessly upon his stool with the two puppet monarchs enthroned behind him, but of a sudden a dark shadow passed over his face, and he sprang to his feet in one of those gusts of passion which were the single blot upon his noble and generous character.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Thus, as token of what a puppet thing life is, the ancient song surged through him and he came into his own again; and he came because men had found a yellow metal in the North, and because Manuel was a gardener’s helper whose wages did not lap over the needs of his wife and divers small copies of himself.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The Ladies Lynn and Ingram continued to consort in solemn conferences, where they nodded their two turbans at each other, and held up their four hands in confronting gestures of surprise, or mystery, or horror, according to the theme on which their gossip ran, like a pair of magnified puppets.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And yet, you little rag puppet, you little echoing mechanism, you are unable to kill me as you would a snake or a shark, because I have hands, feet, and a body shaped somewhat like yours.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He continued to send for me punctually the moment the clock struck seven; though when I appeared before him now, he had no such honeyed terms as love and darling on his lips: the best words at my service were provoking puppet, malicious elf, sprite, changeling, &c.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)