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View synonyms for popinjay

popinjay

[ pop-in-jey ]

noun

  1. a person given to vain, pretentious displays and empty chatter; coxcomb; fop.
  2. British Dialect. a woodpecker, especially the green woodpecker.
  3. Archaic. the figure of a parrot usually fixed on a pole and used as a target in archery and gun shooting.
  4. Archaic. a parrot.


popinjay

/ ˈpɒpɪnˌdʒeɪ /

noun

  1. a conceited, foppish, or excessively talkative person
  2. an archaic word for parrot
  3. the figure of a parrot used as a target
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of popinjay1

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English papejay, popingay, papinjai(e), from Middle French papegai, papingay “parrot,” ultimately from Arabic bab(ba)ghā', probably imitative of the bird's cry
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Word History and Origins

Origin of popinjay1

C13 papeniai, from Old French papegay a parrot, from Spanish papagayo, from Arabic babaghā
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Example Sentences

That spruce, affected little popinjay over there, who looks as if he had been drinking verjuice.

Then will they miss seeing a man, and not a popinjay, I retorted.

You might argue with them all day, and you could not make them feel so small as I made that popinjay feel in one hour.

When the class war came, he would naturally he found shooting down the workmen; but for any other war, an ignorant popinjay!

The very quintessence of popinjay vulgarity is reached when nicely is made to do service for well, in this wise: "How do you do?"

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