dummy

B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun Informal

n. an insulting word for someone you think is stupid.

n. a pejorative term for a person perceived as unintelligent or slow-witted.

“I felt like such a dummy when I realized I had my shirt on backwards.”

“He was tired of being treated like a dummy by his colleagues just because he lacked a formal degree.”

B1 · Intermediate Countable noun British English

n. a rubber or plastic object that a baby sucks on to stay calm.

n. a rubber or silicone teat given to an infant to soothe them through the sucking reflex.

“The baby stopped crying as soon as his mother gave him his dummy.”

“Pediatricians often debate the long-term effects of prolonged dummy use on a child's dental development.”

B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun Sports

n. a move where you pretend to pass or kick the ball to trick the other team.

n. a deceptive move or feint intended to mislead an opponent regarding one's next action.

“The striker sold the defender a dummy and ran straight toward the goal.”

“By selling the goalkeeper a dummy, the forward created enough space to slot the ball into the bottom corner.”

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Computing Technical

n. a fake object or word used temporarily until the real one is ready.

n. a non-functional or placeholder element used in place of a functional one for testing or structural purposes.

“The designer used dummy text to see how the layout would look.”

“The programmer inserted a dummy variable to ensure the function would compile while the database was still offline.”

C2 · Proficiency Countable noun Linguistics Academic · Technical

n. a word like 'it' or 'there' that fills a space in a sentence but has no real meaning.

n. an expletive or pleonastic word that serves a purely structural role in a sentence without carrying semantic content.

“In the sentence 'It is raining', the word 'it' is a dummy subject.”

“The use of a dummy auxiliary, such as 'do' in English questions, is a distinctive feature of the language's syntax.”

C1 · Advanced Technical

v. to make a simple, fake version of something to show how it will work.

v. to create a mock-up or non-functional prototype of a product or document.

“We need to dummy up the book cover before we send it to the printer.”

“The architects dummied up a cardboard model to demonstrate the scale of the atrium to the investors.”

C1 · Advanced American English · Slang

adv. a slang word used to mean 'very' or 'extremely'.

adv. an intensifier used to emphasize the degree of an adjective.

“That new video game is dummy hard to beat.”

“The concert was dummy loud, and my ears were ringing for hours afterward.”