Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also dumbie, dumby) a dumb (i.e. mute) person.

1598		D. Fergusson Scot. Proverbs (1785) 10: (Jam.) Dummie canna lie.
1619		Boyd Last Battell of Soule (1629) 1049: (Jam.) All men are lyers, but Dummie cannot lye.
1670		J. Ray Proverbs 268: Dummie (a dumb man) cannot lie.
1681		S. Colvil Whiggs Supplication Pt II 22: And in the end these furious Cryers Stood silent [...] like to Dumbies making Signs.
1812		G. Colman Yngr ‘Low Ambition’ Poetical Vagaries 12: Though he had’nt been too hoarse to speak, He was too ugly, even, for a dumby.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 20 Feb. 28/2: The wines of Charles Wright were highly relished, and several dummies became eloquent without the aid of teachers of elocution, by the ‘gaily circling glass’.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 133: The Duchesses become dummies, and the Countesses do pout.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 135: Says the old Governor, – Mine hears, (which means my dummies, or fellers that hear but don’t speak).
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 272: I, being a stranger, was inefficient and dummy.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 17 Mar. 3/3: The two of the force reinforced by a night watchman, ran as hard as two corpses trussed in blue and a dumby could.
1882		Dundee Courier 18 Aug. 7/4: Then I put on the dummy dodge, made signs, and wrote on a piece of paper that I was deaf and dumb.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 251: So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs.
1891		M.E.W. Freeman New England Nun 172: There, she took that little dumbie out of the poor-house [DA].
1891		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 28 Mar. 11/2: It Is of no use for the referee calling out ‘Time!’ while Dummy is in the ring, as deafness is numbered among his afflictions.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 81: ‘[T]here’s a bug prize fighter around Clancy’s that's deaf an' dumb. [...] They call him “Dummy McGuire”’.
1907		‘Dummy’ in W. Jekyll Jam. Song and Story 84: There was a man couldn’ talk, called Dummy.
1917		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 12 May 12/1: ‘’E [...] writes down wich ’e’s deef an’ dumb [...] Thim darn dummies make ut hard pickins fer a guy, don’t they?’.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 66: What do you do if you bump into a natural dummy when you’re D.D.ing?
1957		H. Ellison ‘We Take Care of Our Dead’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 51: He was the dummy of the gang, the guy everyone trusted because he couldn’t talk.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 47: The creep was called ‘Fog Horn’ [...] before his trouble made him a dummy.
2007		(con. 1962) E. Bunker Stark 14: Dummy, a mute who everyone had avoided in the joint.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1890		H. Nisbet ‘Bail Up!’ 151: He had learnt the dummy alphabet, and so could talk to his sweetheart with his fingers.
1911		D. Runyon ‘Far from the Big, Bright Aisle’ 9 July [synd. col.] This being a citizen of a dummy island ain’t no skinooch.
1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 33: They don’t seem to be able to tell a good guy from a dummy head.

3. a fool, an idiot.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 238: dummy [...] a silly half-witted person.
1821		Egan Life in London in Bk of Sports (1832) 6: bill put-’em-along, who was every thing but a dummy.
1823		Sydney Gaz. 30 Oct. 4/2: That saucy minx, Fan Flirt, whose skits about the ‘dummies’ of the Colony be only sheer envy because she hasn’t the dumps.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 263: [note] In no situation of life to appear like a dummy, and be insensible to the surrounding scene.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1851		M. Reid Scalp-Hunters II 137: I would think less o’ these other dummies not seein’ at a glimp how we kin do it.
1868		‘High Low Jacky’ in My Young Wife and I Songster 33: I play the ‘deuce’ with ‘dummies,’ there I have such winning ways.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 144: The first part of the compound, the adjective dumm, is often used as dummy, not only to represent the absent partner at cards, but also any stupid, silent person.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 9/3: Among the crowd of performers, who stands out most prominently? We think the acrobats, but our ‘kids’ think differently [...] It is the ‘dummy’ that keeps our ‘darlings’ in a perpetual simmer. He is described on the bills as an ‘idiot,’ but the description doesn’t cover the case.
1889		J.K. Jerome Three Men in a Boat 131: Why couldn’t you wind it up properly, you silly dummy?
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 28: The Dummy at Right needed an Automobile, and the New Man couldn’t jump out of a Boat and hit the Water.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 49: She hit him Twice with her Fan and began to think he was not such a Dummy after all.
1909		Gem 23 Jan. 12: ‘Dummy, then,’ said Mr. Finn grimly. ‘Silly idiot! Dude!’.
1910		Magnet 10 Sept. 18: If that dummy croaks in my hearing, I’ll go for him.
1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 40: Of course, I ain’t exactly a dummy at that, Joe; I know a few odd words of the French.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 66: The damn dummy said the guys that did the job were Poles.
1939		R. Chandler ‘Trouble Is My Business’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 190: Lay off, dummy.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 132: I married the biggest dummy ever walked in shoeleather.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 31: How simple can people get? Did they take everybody for dummies like themselves?
1961		J. Kirkwood There Must Be a Pony! 67: Sweet Jesus, what could you do with a dummy like that?
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 151: He’s not a user, and he’s no dummy either.
1975		Sun. Times Mag. 12 Oct. 25: Nobby grew up like any other Manchester kid: a ‘dummy’ at school.
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 248: You’re a couple of real dummies.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 10: ‘[T]here’s no way this new pack of dummies can fix up the mess this State is in’.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 209: You’re not a dummy [...] You’re smart and real intelligent.
1998		R.G. Barrett Goodoo Goodoo 259: You’ve been conned, dummy.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 247: There are a lot of dummies up here [...] In the city, they ain’t playing that.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 16: It’ll go a long way to keeping the dummies run that film around for the wiseguys honest.
2016		New Yorker 11-18 July 🌐 So, yes, there are bigots in the Trump movement, and wackos, and dummies.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 54: ‘Me and the other five dummies who couldn’t graduate with the rest of the class’.

4. a dumb animal.

1831

Morn. Chron. (London) 6 June 1/5: [US source] Though he [i.e. a dog] was only a dumby, all were sad enough at thoughts o’ parting.

5. (UK und.) specific use of SE: a bundle supposedly representing a babe-in-arms, used by beggars to elicit money.

1858

Home News for India 17 Apr. 19/1: He [...] thought [...] it was what was known in the street-beggar’s slang as a ‘dummy’—that is, a bundle made up like a child, for the purpose of exciting compassion—a sham-baby.

6. a deaf mute, or a tramp or beggar who pretends to be deaf and dumb.

1873		Sl. Dict.
1918		‘A-No. 1’ Mother of the Hoboes 43: The Rating Of The Tramps. 5. Dummy: pretended to be deaf and dumb.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 102: Peggy is a one-legged man. Stumpy is a legless man. Wingy is a man with one or both arms off. Blinky is a man with one or both eyes defected. A Dummy is a man who is dumb or deaf and dumb.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 301: Beggars [...] may be further sub-divided into groups: a. Blinkey (blind) b. Deafey (deaf) c. Dummy (dumb) d. D & D (deaf and dumb).
1933		Hecht & Fowler Great Magoo 59: Next to him is dummy dolan, an undersized, pock-marked bus boy of forty, unable to hear or speak [...] dummy has the dice.
1943		C. McCullers Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1986) 53: Singer looked very carefully at his lips when he spoke – he had noticed that before. But a dummy!
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 182: Dummy, a Deaf and dumb person.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 1224: I figured the dummy must be with him [...] and this deaf-and-dumb pulls a gun on me!

7. (Aus.) a cable-car [such cars consisted of two vehicles: a ‘dummy,’ holding the driving mechanism, and a passenger car].

1904

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 25 May 3/3: At the corner of Pitt street they mounted a cable dummy with great dash and flutter [...] Then dummy-driver clanged the bell and the car whisked away.

8. (US Und.) a detective.

1929		C.G. Givens ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 132: dummy, n. Detective.
1934		J.M. Cain Postman Always Rings Twice (1985) 131: He’s my gumshoe man now. She thought she was talking to a dick, but she really was talking to a dummy.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

9. (UK Und.) one who poses (or is unwittingly exploited) as the law-abiding owner of an establishment, e.g. a nightclub, to shield the criminal who is the actual owner.

1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 29: He had discovered quite early in life that there was a comfortable living to be made in the profession of ‘dummy.’.
1934		Wkly Times (Melbourne) 7 May 21/5: Referring to his wife, Mortimer said, ‘I used her only as a dummy. She would not stand for anything like this’.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 309: I know the score, you’re just one of the dummies, Vegas is full of them.

10. (also dummie) a retarded person.

1930		C.R. Shaw Jack-Roller 59: Everybody thought there was something wrong with me. They had my head examined to see if I was a ‘dummie’.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 27: ‘The Dummy,’ Murdoch replied shortly [...] ‘For God’s sake, Dummy, shut up that flaming row in a man’s ear!’.
1964		J. Thompson Pop. 1280 in Four Novels (1983) 393: A woman still might have a dummy pour it on her than a normal fella.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 137: The old cocksucker probably wanted to go back to Camarillo in the first place just to molest the little dummies.
1990		R. Campbell Sweet La-La Land (1999) 138: I asked you to take the dummy for a pee.
2001		J. King White Trash 65: Nobody did it better than a dummy.

11. (US crime) a supposed ‘sucker’ who is used to lure real victims into a confidence game.

1935

S. Walker Mrs Astor’s Horse 115: Another highly effective trick, particularly at large parties, is done with a beautiful blonde girl dummy and a bed as props.

12. (N.Z. Und.) a sentence of solitary confinement; the solitary confinement/punishment cell in a prison (the inmate is forced to be silent).

1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 57: He’d think nothing of snooping into the cell of a man doing dummy. [Ibid.] 126: It always ended up in a spell of dummy for abuse.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 62: Nearly all the books they keep for the dummy are unreadable.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 248: dummy (n) Detention unit.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 41/1: dummy punishment cell in prison.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].