Dictionary

quockerwodger en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈkwɑkəɹˌwɑd͡ʒəɹ/ (General-American)
• /ˈkwɒkəˌwɒd͡ʒə/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Origin unknown, possibly a nonce word.

Meanings

1. Synonym of jumping jack (“a toy figure of a person with jointed limbs that can be made to appear to dance or jump by pulling an attached string”).
   • Just hand the old quockerwodger over to me! I'll cut him in half and each part will dance on the rope just as comically as you please! 1924, Walter S. Bloem [i.e., Walter Julius Bloem], “Tricks”, in Allen W[ilson] Porterfield, transl., The Soul of the Moving Picture […], New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Company […], →OCLC, pages 36–37:
   • "I have a word for writers of his stripe," Mrs. Hale continued. […] "Quockerwodgers, I call them. Quockerwodgers are puppets. Always squawking. 'Look at me!' But they never do anything very remarkable or different." 1963, Ramona Maher, chapter 12, in Erick Berry [pseudonym; Evangel Allena Champlin Best], editor, A Dime for Romance (The Daughters of Valor Series), New York, N.Y.: The John Day Company, →OCLC, page 166:
   • [Charles] Lee was a scarecrow, cantankerous, acidulous, arrogant, breathlessly ugly, as jerky as a quockerwodger, but he knew more about the art of war, as it was breathlessly called, than anybody else in America […] 1969, Donald Barr Chidsey, The War in the South: The Carolinas and Georgia in the American Revolution: An Informal History, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →OCLC, page 37:
   • Pierre Soulé was a distinguished and effervescent resident of New Orleans. He was a jumping-jack of a man, a man who leapt into action like a quockerwodger when you jerk the string. 1971, Donald Barr Chidsey, “A Bombshell for Washington”, in The Spanish-American War: A Behind-the-scenes Account of the War in Cuba, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →OCLC, page 7:
   • I felt a grip like iron. A strength beyond all reckoning lifted me and flung me like a child's quockerwodger toy soldier, wooden limbs flailing herk-a-jerk. 2009, Ian Weir, “Jack”, in Daniel O’Thunder, Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre, →ISBN, part IV, page 372:
2. (figuratively, slang) A person whose actions are controlled by someone else; a puppet.
   • [E]very one to some extent must be a garden Quockerwodger, ready to take hints, for every member of our Fraternity is never too big to learn from the humblest brother or sister. 1923 August 18, “The Bulb Order: III.—Miscellaneous.”, in The Garden: Orchard, Garden, Woodland, volume LXXXVII, number 2700, London: […] [The Avenue Press for] “Country Life” […], and by George Newnes, […], →OCLC, page 423, column 2:
   • Did I predicate that Royalty in this as well as in all other unenlightened parts of the superficial universe, was a Quockerwodger? 1868 June 20, Ephraim Dodge [probably a pseudonym], “The Tower of London. From Ephraim Dodge in London to Eben Stash, New York.”, in Fun, volume VII, London: […] Judd & Glass, […] (for the proprietor) […], →OCLC, page 160, column 1:
   • Nearly all of these people were sincere in their conviction that Prof. [Felix] Frankfurter’s […] general lack of harmony with the American form of government made him quite unfit to sit himself down at the Supreme Court bench. They felt that the fellow was a quockerwodger rather than a politician, an againster rather than a true American, an oppositionist in fundamental things rather than a sincere patriot. 1944, Morris A[llison] Bealle, Washington Squirrel Cage, Washington, D.C.: Morris A. Bealle, →OCLC, page 9, column 1:

Forms

Relateds

âme damnée

Synonyms

jumping jack · monkey · tool