variants
or carney
or carnie
plural carnies or carneys
often attributive
2
: a person who works with a carnival
Examples of carny in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The rock-and-roll manager proper, or improper, really begins with Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, the former carny with the omnipresent cigar, nodding, winking, and fanning his latest flame into a global conflagration.
—
Andrew O’Hagan, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2024
McGee’s Southern voice is boyish and boisterous as befits the carny atmosphere of the minors and his own youthful excitement at playing a part behind the scenes at a storied ballpark.
—Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 25 May 2023
The carny can use a hidden switch to force the balls to bounce out of the basket.
—WIRED, 23 Jan. 2023
Jack, wearing those weird split color carny pants playing his acoustic through an octave pedal and fuzz to get that earworm Troggs/Monks bass sound and Meg’s cold disaffection and certainly icky thump on her kick drum pounding my skull into oblivion.
—Ron Hart, SPIN, 1 Apr. 2023
Based on the 1946 William Lindsay Gresham noir novel, del Toro's dark and mind-bending psychological thriller casts Bradley Cooper as a traveling carny and con man with a predilection for manipulating people who partners with an equally ruthless psychiatrist (Blanchett).
—Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 2 Nov. 2021
The carny rolled into Santa Monica on Wednesday.
—Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2021
In the current production, Corey Hawkins’s Lincoln is lean, hungry, and watchful, his Abe costume all but hanging off him, his body attuned more to the sharp turns of his escalating rivalry with his brother than to the meta-theater of his carny gig.
—Rob Weinert-Kendt, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2022
Why did the carny let the sucker win the giant teddy bear?
—WIRED, 23 Jan. 2023
Andrew O’Hagan, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2024
McGee’s Southern voice is boyish and boisterous as befits the carny atmosphere of the minors and his own youthful excitement at playing a part behind the scenes at a storied ballpark.
—Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 25 May 2023
The carny can use a hidden switch to force the balls to bounce out of the basket.
—WIRED, 23 Jan. 2023
Jack, wearing those weird split color carny pants playing his acoustic through an octave pedal and fuzz to get that earworm Troggs/Monks bass sound and Meg’s cold disaffection and certainly icky thump on her kick drum pounding my skull into oblivion.
—Ron Hart, SPIN, 1 Apr. 2023
Based on the 1946 William Lindsay Gresham noir novel, del Toro's dark and mind-bending psychological thriller casts Bradley Cooper as a traveling carny and con man with a predilection for manipulating people who partners with an equally ruthless psychiatrist (Blanchett).
—Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 2 Nov. 2021
The carny rolled into Santa Monica on Wednesday.
—Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2021
In the current production, Corey Hawkins’s Lincoln is lean, hungry, and watchful, his Abe costume all but hanging off him, his body attuned more to the sharp turns of his escalating rivalry with his brother than to the meta-theater of his carny gig.
—Rob Weinert-Kendt, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2022
Why did the carny let the sucker win the giant teddy bear?
—WIRED, 23 Jan. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'carny.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
circa 1933, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Dictionary Entries Near carny
Cite this Entry
“Carny.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/carny. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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