Merry Andrew

plural Merry Andrews · alternative merry andrew · alternative merry-andrew · alternative merryandrew

1. idiomaticA person who clowns publicly; a buffoon; an entertainer's assistant.

   Instead, therefore, of answering my landlady, the puppet-show man ran out to punish his Merry-Andrew [...]

   1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 438

   2 more examples

   The games of the circus—the wild-beast fight and the gladiators, the rope-dancers, the merry-andrews, and the posture-masters,—were more to their taste than clever intrigue and brilliant dialogue.

   1873, William Lucas Collins, chapter III, in Plautus and Terence, page 31

   One of them, the eldest, was a sort of merry andrew and was not above dressing the part with a weird cap of jackal's skin with many hanging tails and tassels.

   1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 155