Carny
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A person who works in a carnival (often one who uses exaggerated showmanship or fraud). countable, informal
"The Reverend Foster, self-ordained—or directly ordained by God, depending on authority cited—had an instinct for the pulse of his times stronger than that of a skilled carnie sizing up a mark."
- 2 Flattery. dialectal
- 3 The jargon used by carnival workers. uncountable
- 4 A carnival. countable, informal
- 1 To cajole, wheedle, or coax. dialectal
"The crossing at St. Martin’s Church was mine fust of all; and when the other lads come to it I didn’t take no heed of ’em—only for that I’d have been a bright boy by now, but they carnied me over like; for when I tried to turn ’em off they’d say, in a carnying way, ‘Oh, let us stay on,’ so I never took no heed of ’em."
Example
More examples"The Reverend Foster, self-ordained—or directly ordained by God, depending on authority cited—had an instinct for the pulse of his times stronger than that of a skilled carnie sizing up a mark."
Etymology
Clipping of carnival.
Of unknown origin.
More for "carny"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.