Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also nod) a fool, a simpleton [the foolish wagging of his head].

c.1521		J. Heywood Witty and Witless in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905 ) 196: To the first most pain of the witless noddy, / Join we the wittiest least pain, pain of body.
1533		J. Heywood Play of Love in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 180: Then wist I well the noddy must come / To do as he did, or stand and play mum.
c.1540		J. Heywood Four P.P. in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 42: If I denied, I were a noddy.
1562		Jacke Juggler Cii: It wold greue my hart soo helpe me god To runne a bout the streetes like a maisterlis nod.
1567		R. Edwards Damon and Pithias (1571) Bi: car.: I was sombody, The kinge delighted in mee, now I am but a noddy [...] aris.: But I will not call you noddie, but only in iest.
1575		‘Mr. S’ Gammer Gurton’s Needle in Whitworth (1997) I iii: And then chwere but a noddy to venture where cha’ no need.
1589		Nashe Death and Buriall of Martin Mar-Prelate in Works I (1883–4) 202: And then like a Noddie [...] you giue him his own worde againe, and make him Groome of a close stoole.
c.1591		Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona I i: Nod, ay? why, that’s noddy.
1606		Return from Parnassus Pt II Prologue: Gentlemen you can play at noddy, or rather play vpon nodies.
1619		J. Taylor ‘A Kicksey Winsey’ in Works (1869) II 39: They with a courtly tricke, or a flim-flam, do nod at me, whilst I the noddy am.
1621		R. Burton Anatomy of Melancholy (1850) 208: They will be scoffing, insulting over their inferiors [...] till they have made by their humoring or gulling, ex stulto insanum: a mope, or a noddy.
1635		R. Brome Sparagus Garden II iii: Sdaggers if ever man that had but a mind to be a Gentleman was so noddy poopt.
1638		Rowley Shoo-maker, a Gentleman Act V: shoo: Though I neither shuffle not cut, Ile hold Cards too. wife: And Ile not sit out, though I turne up Noddy.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 103: The bunsellers or cake-makers [...] did injure them most outrageously, calling them [...] staring clowns, forlorn snakes, ninny lobcocks, scurvy sneaksbies, fondling fops, base loons, saucy coxcombs, idle lusks, scoffing braggards, noddy meacocks, blockish grutnols, doddi-pol-heads.
a.1661		‘Bum-Fodder’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) ii 55: There is another proverb which every Noddy, / Will jeer the RUMP with, and cry Hoddy-doddy.
1677		R. L’Estrange Counterfeit Bridegroom II i: Well said, Mr. Noddy.
1683		Whores Rhetorick 195: Ha, ha, I could laugh at the Noddy a Week together.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel II Bk IV 484: But now I find I was a gull, a wittol, a woodcock, a mere ninny, a dolt-head, a noddy, a changeling, a calf-lolly, a doddipoll.
1705		E. Hickeringill Priest-Craft II 36: Huzzah! a Health to the old Noddies, that nod and cringe and bow to Nothing.
1711		N. Ward Vulgus Britannicus VIII 87: Shew by the Ribbons that are hung to / The Noddies, who the Fools belong to.
1720		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy VI 341: But Hellier and Brook, a Method have took, / To prove them all Scoundrels and Noddys.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: noddy c. a Fool.
1757		Smollett Reprisal II xiv: ’Sblood the fellow has no more brains than a noddy.
1782		P. Freneau ‘Political Balance’ in Prescott & Sanders Intro. to Amer. Poetry (1932) 79: Why, Jove, you’re a noddy.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		Phelam O’Gimblet 23: He’s a knave, and a noddy to boot.
1833		A. Greene Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth I 53: What a noddy the man is!
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 36: ‘Open a jewelry store, you noddy!’ cried Harriet, ‘’ow’re you goin’ to do that?’.
1866		H.H. Brownell ‘Honest Abe’ in War-lyrics and other poems 112: Sulking, like a jealous noddy, / O’er his Norwalks and his toddy.
1892		Punch 3 Dec. 258: O lor! O dear! What have we here? What a nondescript, huge Nid-Noddy!
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 202: noddy, noddie, a simpleton. ‘He’s such a noddy.’.

2. (Irish) a one-horse conveyance [its ‘nodding’ from side-to-side].

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Noddy [...] a kind of buggy or one horse chaise, with a seat before it for a driver, used in and about Dublin in the manner of hackney coach [...] It is called a noddy from the nutation of its head.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 165: A Noddy [...] a miserable chaise on two wheels, drawn by one wretched horses.
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 45: Some deliberation took place whether a noddy or a jingle should be employed.
1840		London Standard 17 Dec. n.p.: The parties in custody being brought down from Bridewell in noddies by twos, with escorts of police.
1847		J.E. Walsh Ireland Sixty Years Ago (1885) 72: The Ringsend car was succeeded by the ‘noddy’, so called from its oscillating motion [...] It was a low vehicle, capable of holding two persons, and drawn by a horse.
1853		Glasgow Herald 17 June 1/3: Contract to provide a One-horse Box noddy or coach, when required, to convey Bodies of Poor to Graveyard from Poor House.
1870		Western Dly Press 18 Oct. 4: [He was] going for a noddy to carry her to the coach office.
1877		‘Mister Barney’ in Laughing Songster 127: Mister Barney one day went to Limerick fair, / And hired a noddy to carry him there.
a.1894		R.L. Stevenson Treasure of Franchard (1897) 234: Jean-Marie led forth the doctor’s noddy .
1907		Manchester Courier 21 June 14/8: The Dublin ’noddies’ were improved with springs, cushions and spoked wheels [...] The longer variety of car-omnibus was evolved from the ‘noddy’ and called a Ringsend car.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 231: Dogs licking the blood off the street when the lord lieutenant’s wife drove by in her noddy.
1995		P. O’Keeffe Down Cobbled Streets, A Liberties Childhood 25: Chariots, carriages, sedan-chairs and noddies rumbled over uneven roads.

3. a weakling [revivial of sense of a fool, influenced by the children’s character Noddy, created by author Enid Blyton (1897–1968)].

2002

Hambo Harrow Angling Society Message Board 10 Jun. 🌐 Squire had to wait until september last year for his first fish, but being he’s a noddy that’s understandable (he he he).

4. (US black) a heroin addict [nod v. (2)].

1992

R. Price Clockers 230: The junkie camp was lost in a boiling mist [...] his imagination calling up a vision of half-dead noddies trudging in the direction of his car.

5. (UK black) fellatio.

2017

410 ‘Crash’ 🎵 Bitch I want noddy.