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# dummy

noun (a dummy, dummies); adjective (dummy); verb (dummy, dummies, dummied — in sport)

«dummy» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. A dummy is a model of a person, used in shops to show clothes or in tests, like a crash-test dummy. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#m1)
2. In the UK, Australia and Ireland a dummy is a rubber teat a baby sucks to calm down; Americans call it a pacifier. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#m2)
3. Dummy describes something that looks real but is not, such as a dummy camera. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#m3)
4. In some sports a dummy is a pretend move to trick another player. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#m4)
5. A dummy is also a rude word for a silly person. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#m5)

### In the lessons

In everyday life children see shop dummies and babies with dummies; in science and safety, crash-test dummies show how seatbelts protect people. In stories a dummy may be used to fool a guard. Phrases: «a crash-test dummy», «a shop dummy», «sell someone a dummy» (trick them in sport), «a dummy run» (a practice).

### Examples

- The baby fell asleep with her dummy. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#x1)
- The shop dummy wore a red winter coat. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#x2)
- Crash-test dummies show why we must wear seatbelts. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#x3)
- The burglar fooled the guard with a dummy in the bed. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#x4)
- The camera on the wall is just a dummy. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#x5)
- He sold the defender a dummy and scored. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#x6)
- We did a dummy run of the fire drill first. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/#x7)

### Note

Plural: dummies (y changes to ies). Pacifier (US) and dummy (UK, Australia, Ireland) mean the same thing for babies. Calling a person a dummy is rude.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «dummy» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dummy/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«dummy» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/dummy.html) on Mova free.