stooge

1 of 2

noun

1
a
: one who plays a subordinate or compliant role to a principal
2
3

stooge

2 of 2

verb

stooged; stooging

intransitive verb

: to act as a stooge
congressmen who stooge for the oil and mineral interestsNew Republic

Examples of stooge in a Sentence

Noun a gangster and his stooges He's just a stooge for the oil industry.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
At the party convention, speaker after speaker denounced Tusk, characterizing him as a German stooge. Luke Johnson, The New Republic, 13 Oct. 2023 That’s character in literature: not a stooge in your reverie of fair play and sound politics, but a creature of his time. Andrew O’Hagan, The New York Review of Books, 2 Mar. 2023 How to not feel like a needy buzzkill, and how to not make your friends feel like stooges. Tom Rasmussen, Vogue, 23 Feb. 2023 There was also a fiendishly complicated mind-reading act based on a memorized system of word clues relayed by the stooge to the sham mentalist. Edward Kosner, WSJ, 26 May 2021 In China, Zhang’s letter received hundreds of sharp replies, condemning him as a traitor, a coward and an American stooge, sometimes referencing his youthful blog posts that favorably described American culture and politics. Alex W. Palmer, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2022 Truss turned out to be a stooge for Boris Johnson, Maureen Dowd writes. Ashley Wu, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2022
Verb
The key political takeaway is that the White House is determined to frame the upcoming contest between Biden and Donald Trump as a choice between a Democrat fighting for the American middle class and a Republican stooge for the plutocracy. John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 12 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stooge.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

origin unknown

First Known Use

Noun

1913, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1939, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of stooge was in 1913

Dictionary Entries Near stooge

Cite this Entry

“Stooge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stooge. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

stooge

noun
ˈstüj
1
: one who follows or serves another without thinking
2
: an actor who usually by asking questions prepares the way for a principal comedian's jokes
stooge verb

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