quockerwodger

English

WOTD – 17 February 2025

Etymology

Origin unknown, possibly a nonce word.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒkəˌwɒd͡ʒə/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɑkəɹˌwɑd͡ʒəɹ/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Hyphenation: quock‧er‧wod‧ger

Noun

quockerwodger (plural quockerwodgers)

Synonym of jumping jack (“a toy figure of a person with jointed limbs that can be made to appear to dance or jump by pulling an attached string”).
- 1924, Walter S. Bloem [i.e., Walter Julius Bloem], “Tricks”, in Allen W[ilson] Porterfield, transl., The Soul of the Moving Picture […], New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Company […], →OCLC, pages 36–37:
  Just hand the old quockerwodger over to me! I'll cut him in half and each part will dance on the rope just as comically as you please!
- 1963, Ramona Maher, chapter 12, in Erick Berry [pseudonym; Evangel Allena Champlin Best], editor, A Dime for Romance (The Daughters of Valor Series), New York, N.Y.: The John Day Company, →OCLC, page 166:
  "I have a word for writers of his stripe," Mrs. Hale continued. […] "Quockerwodgers, I call them. Quockerwodgers are puppets. Always squawking. 'Look at me!' But they never do anything very remarkable or different."
- 1969, Donald Barr Chidsey, The War in the South: The Carolinas and Georgia in the American Revolution: An Informal History, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →OCLC, page 37:
  [Charles] Lee was a scarecrow, cantankerous, acidulous, arrogant, breathlessly ugly, as jerky as a quockerwodger, but he knew more about the art of war, as it was breathlessly called, than anybody else in America […]
- 1971, Donald Barr Chidsey, “A Bombshell for Washington”, in The Spanish-American War: A Behind-the-scenes Account of the War in Cuba, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →OCLC, page 7:
  Pierre Soulé was a distinguished and effervescent resident of New Orleans. He was a jumping-jack of a man, a man who leapt into action like a quockerwodger when you jerk the string.
- 2009, Ian Weir, “Jack”, in Daniel O’Thunder, Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre, →ISBN, part IV, page 372:
  I felt a grip like iron. A strength beyond all reckoning lifted me and flung me like a child's quockerwodger toy soldier, wooden limbs flailing herk-a-jerk.
(figurative, slang) A person whose actions are controlled by someone else; a puppet.
Synonyms: monkey, tool
- 1868 June 20, Ephraim Dodge [probably a pseudonym], “The Tower of London. From Ephraim Dodge in London to Eben Stash, New York.”, in Fun, volume VII, London: […] Judd & Glass, […] (for the proprietor) […], →OCLC, page 160, column 1:
  Did I predicate that Royalty in this as well as in all other unenlightened parts of the superficial universe, was a Quockerwodger?
- 1923 August 18, “The Bulb Order: III.—Miscellaneous.”, in The Garden: Orchard, Garden, Woodland, volume LXXXVII, number 2700, London: […] [The Avenue Press for] “Country Life” […], and by George Newnes, […], →OCLC, page 423, column 2:
  [E]very one to some extent must be a garden Quockerwodger, ready to take hints, for every member of our Fraternity is never too big to learn from the humblest brother or sister.
- 1944, Morris A[llison] Bealle, Washington Squirrel Cage, Washington, D.C.: Morris A. Bealle, →OCLC, page 9, column 1:
  Nearly all of these people were sincere in their conviction that Prof. [Felix] Frankfurter’s […] general lack of harmony with the American form of government made him quite unfit to sit himself down at the Supreme Court bench. They felt that the fellow was a quockerwodger rather than a politician, an againster rather than a true American, an oppositionist in fundamental things rather than a sincere patriot.

Translations

synonym of jumping jack — see jumping jack

person whose actions are controlled by someone else — see puppet