Meaning of Aunt Sally | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A traditional game in which balls are thrown to break the pipe in the mouth of a figurine resembling an old woman.
2. A figure drawing criticism or ridicule, especially when prejudiced or unwarranted.
   UK, figuratively

Examples

“There were some swings, and a hooting-tooting blaring merry-go-round, and a shooting-gallery and Aunt Sallies.”

“Mrs. Morel did not like the wakes. There were two sets of horses, one going by steam, one pulled round by a pony; three organs were grinding, and there came odd cracks of pistol-shots, fearful screeching of the cocoanut man's rattle, shouts of the Aunt Sally man, screeches from the peep-show lady.”

“But the novel is something more than a national institution; it has become the recognized channel of communication between the crank and his victims; it is the shooting gallery through which we fire our messages at that dear old Aunt Sally, the British Public.”

“He is helpless, an Aunt Sally, a figure from a cartoon, a missionary in cassock and topi waiting with clasped hands and upcast eyes while the savages jaw away in their own lingo preparatory to plunging him into their boiling cauldron.”

“IN FOUR years as India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh has come to resemble a bearded and turbaned Aunt Sally.”

“The finance minister, a true Aunt Sally figure, was dispatched to Moscow in search of backing.”

CEFR level