muppet

See also: Muppet

English

Etymology

From Muppet, from the Muppets franchise

Elmo, one of the Sesame Street Muppet characters, with performer Kevin Clash and Diane Sawyer in 2010.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌpɪt/, /ˈmʌpɛt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌpət/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ʌpɪt

Noun

muppet (plural muppets)

1. Alternative form of Muppet (“a puppet in the style of Jim Henson's Muppets”)
2. (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Eastern US, South Africa, slang, derogatory) An incompetent or foolish person.

   Sally is such a muppet, the way she always misses the train.

   Some muppets parked a car at the bus stop.

   • 1996 April 18, soc.culture.singapore‎^[1] (Usenet):

     You impudent muppet, diu lay! You may be able to hoodwink people over in the UK, but not those of us over here.

   • 2011, Ruth Saberton, Ellie Andrews Has Second Thoughts, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     'Honestly, Ellie, I don't know why you bother.' 'Err, because I need to squeeze my size twelve self into a size eight wedding dress?' She rolls her eyes. 'You're such a muppet. Why didn't you just buy a bigger size? Dieting is pointless.'

   • 2011, Penny Smith, Summer Holiday, HarperCollins UK, →ISBN:

     There was a silence while Miranda tried to form a sentence that wouldn't antagonise her friend. Or was she a friend? Would a proper friend have set her up with such a – such a muppet?

   • 2012, Diane Perry, Red Kite, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 29:

     The truth was I'd love to be in the school team but I wouldn't get picked anyway: most of the kids think I'm a real muppet, a gormo who's into bird-watching and if I tried to join in, they would just rib me, so I don't bother to show any interest.

   • 2012, Jane Reynolds, Just Good Friends?, eBook Partnership, →ISBN:

     Scrappy set off to run out through the dog flap, but Katie caught hold of him (as he was such a muppet he'd be in danger – as usual – of ending up under the wheels of whoever's Chelsea tractor was scrunching its way up the gravel driveway).

   • 2020, Dan Brotzel, Hotel du Jack: And Other Stories, Sandstone Press Ltd, →ISBN:

     Anyway here was a message now, from 'Geordie', sent to Jack and cc-ed to the rest of his male colleagues. Subject line: 'You've been replaced with a real muppet.'

Translations

incompetent or foolish person

• Finnish: tollo (fi), törppö (fi), tolvana (fi)
• Portuguese: tolo (pt) m, tola (pt) f
• Russian: болван (ru) m (bolvan)
• Swedish: mupp (sv) c

Anagrams

• pumpet