quockerwodger

Origin unknown, possibly a nonce word.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒkəˌwɒd͡ʒə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɑkəɹˌwɑd͡ʒəɹ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: quock‧er‧wod‧ger

quockerwodger (plural quockerwodgers)

2. Synonym of jumping jack (“a toy figure of a person with jointed limbs that can be made to appear to dance or jump by pulling an attached string”)
   • 1924, Walter S. Bloem , “Tricks”, in Allen W Porterfield, transl., The Soul of the Moving Picture  Authorized Translation from the German by Allen W. Porterfield">…], New York, N.Y.: E P Dutton & Company , →OCLC, pages 36–37:

     Just hand the old quockerwodger over to me! I'll cut him in half and each part will dance on the rope just as comically as you please!

   • 1963, Ramona Maher, chapter 12, in Erick Berry , editor, A Dime for Romance (The Daughters of Valor Series), New York, N.Y.: The John Day Company, →OCLC, page 166:

     "I have a word for writers of his stripe," Mrs. Hale continued. "Quockerwodgers, I call them. Quockerwodgers are puppets. Always squawking. 'Look at me!' But they never do anything very remarkable or different."

   • 1969, Donald Barr Chidsey, The War in the South: The Carolinas and Georgia in the American Revolution: An Informal History, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →OCLC, page 37:

     Lee was a scarecrow, cantankerous, acidulous, arrogant, breathlessly ugly, as jerky as a quockerwodger, but he knew more about the art of war, as it was breathlessly called, than anybody else in America

   • 1971, Donald Barr Chidsey, “A Bombshell for Washington”, in The Spanish-American War: A Behind-the-scenes Account of the War in Cuba, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →OCLC, page 7:

     Pierre Soulé was a distinguished and effervescent resident of New Orleans. He was a jumping-jack of a man, a man who leapt into action like a quockerwodger when you jerk the string.

   • 2009, Ian Weir, “Jack”, in Daniel O’Thunder, Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre, →ISBN, part IV, page 372:

     I felt a grip like iron. A strength beyond all reckoning lifted me and flung me like a child's quockerwodger toy soldier, wooden limbs flailing herk-a-jerk.

3. (figurative, slang) A person whose actions are controlled by someone else; a puppet.

   Synonyms: monkey, tool

   • 1868 June 20, Ephraim Dodge , “The Tower of London. From Ephraim Dodge in London to Eben Stash, New York.”, in Fun, volume VII, London: Judd & Glass,  (for the proprietor) , →OCLC, page 160, column 1:

     Did I predicate that Royalty in this as well as in all other unenlightened parts of the superficial universe, was a Quockerwodger?

   • 1923 August 18, “The Bulb Order: III.—Miscellaneous.”, in The Garden: Orchard, Garden, Woodland, volume LXXXVII, number 2700, London: “Country Life” , and by George Newnes, , →OCLC, page 423, column 2:

     very one to some extent must be a garden Quockerwodger, ready to take hints, for every member of our Fraternity is never too big to learn from the humblest brother or sister.

   • 1944, Morris A Bealle, Washington Squirrel Cage, Washington, D.C.: Morris A. Bealle, →OCLC, page 9, column 1:

     Nearly all of these people were sincere in their conviction that Prof. Frankfurter’s general lack of harmony with the American form of government made him quite unfit to sit himself down at the Supreme Court bench. They felt that the fellow was a quockerwodger rather than a politician, an againster rather than a true American, an oppositionist in fundamental things rather than a sincere patriot.

• âme damnée

• jumping jack (toy) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• (1860) “QUOCKERWODGER”, in A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words, , 2nd edition, London: John Camden Hotten, , →OCLC, page 197.
• John S Farmer, W E Henley, editors (1902), “Quockerwodger, subs.”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present , volume V, : Printed for subscribers only, →OCLC, page 354, column 1.