Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A merry-andrew; a buffoon; a clown: used as an appellative or pretended surname for a clown: as
  • noun A dialectal form of merman.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • For instance, this prologue involving a manager, merryman, and poet.

    Internecine : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits 2004

  • Who fled from the mocking throng, O! It's the song of a merryman, moping mum,

    I Have a Song to Sing-O 1998

  • At our elderly and intemperate merryman of the shaft and quiver.

    Scales of Justice Marsh, Ngaio, 1895-1982 1955

  • Passing onward, we came upon a diminutive merryman, screaming from the platform of his mountebank theatre, the nature of the entertainment and the lowness of the price of admission — ‘Only four kreutzers for the first place!’

    A Tramp's Wallet stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France William Duthie

  • Her father was a gray-bearded merryman and very proud of his handsome daughter.

    Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks William Elliot Griffis 1885

  • The clown, in evening dress, personating the mock ringmaster, the conventional spotted merryman, and a stalwart gymnast in buff fleshings, bore the drooping form of the favorite in their arms, and, followed by the bystanders, who offered ineffectual assistance, carried the wounded man across the ring and through the draped arch under the music gallery.

    Stories by American Authors, Volume 5 Henry James 1879

  • Draw off, he comes this way "; and grizzled Grimald de Plessis, the Saxon baron, drew still farther behind the tree-trunks as the young duke and his only companion, Golet, his merryman or fool, dashed across the glade to where the stricken stag lay dead.

    Historic Boys Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times Elbridge Streeter Brooks 1874

  • Why don't you stick to your own forums and talk about filip rivers, ledanean tomison, dearen sproles, shown "i stopped doing steroids and now suck" merryman, ... "

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local 2009

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