Ninny

//ˈnɪni// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A silly or foolish person. informal

    "Byd. […] a good cheeke, an inticing eye, a smooth skinne, a well shapt leg, a faire hand, you cannot bring a wench into a fooles parradize for you? Sim. Not I by this garter, I am a foole, a very Ninny I, how call you her? how call you her?"

  2. 2
    a stupid foolish person wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
nincompoopnincompoopaddle pateaddle-brainaddleheadairhead

Example

More examples

"Byd. […] a good cheeke, an inticing eye, a smooth skinne, a well shapt leg, a faire hand, you cannot bring a wench into a fooles parradize for you? Sim. Not I by this garter, I am a foole, a very Ninny I, how call you her? how call you her?"

Etymology

Unknown; the synonym ninnyhammer appears around the same time. Possibly related to innocent or Italian ninno (“small child”).

Related phrases

bliss ninnycotton-headed ninny-muggins

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