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