Zany

Definitions

A fool or clown, especially one whose business on the stage is to imitate foolishly the actions of the principal clown.

archaic

Equivalents

Examples

“Then write⟳ that I may follow⟳, and so be / Thy echo, thy debtor, thy foil, thy zany.”

“O great restorer of the good old stage⟳, / Preacher at once, and Zany of thy age!”

“So there he caught me lying like⟳ a zany on the ground. You may guess⟳ I stood at attention soon enough, but told him I was looking at the founds to see⟳ if they wanted underpinning from the floods.”

“Part of the illusory world is the 'quack' or mountebank who can be seen standing on his own⟳ special platform in the centre of the crowd[…]. Such a person travelled round to fairs and markets selling his nostrums or medicines. This character is dressed in a lace hat, long periwig and embroidered coat with lace cuffs, and is attended by his zany, who is wearing a chequered harlequin outfit and is 'quacking' or 'puffing' his master's wares. No seventeenth- or eighteenth-century mountebank was complete⟳ without his zany or 'Merry Andrew' – a term originally applied to Dr Andrew Boorde, physician to Henry VIII and noted for his ready wit and humour, who was the subject of many broadside ballads.”

CEFR level