Marionette

//ˌmæɹi.əˈnɛt// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A puppet, usually made of wood, which is animated by the pulling of strings.

    "If you think we are worked by strings, Like a Japanese marionette, You don't understand these things: It is simply Court etiquette."

  2. 2
    a small figure of a person operated from above with strings by a puppeteer wordnet
  3. 3
    The buffel duck. obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    To control (somebody) as if they were a puppet; to manipulate. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
puppetagateballbaseball batbatbattledore

Example

More examples

"How ridiculous I was as a Marionette! And how happy I am, now that I have become a real boy!"

Etymology

Borrowed from French marionnette. The word had originally meant a small statue of the Virgin Mary, then also a puppet of her used in religious theatrical presentations, finally generalised to any puppet.

Related phrases

marionette linebuffel duck

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.