second banana
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English
Etymology
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Pronunciation
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Noun
second banana (plural second bananas)
- (idiomatic) A comedian who plays a secondary or supporting role, especially as straight man and traditionally in vaudeville or burlesque theatre.
- He grew disenchanted with playing second banana and never getting credit for the laughter.
- (idiomatic) A person who serves in a supporting, secondary, or subsidiary capacity; an assistant.
- The plumber left his second banana behind, to finish installing my new sink.
- 2012 August 30, Michael Smyth, “The lifeboat is filling up”, in The Province:
- When you want to be the boss, but you can't, it's not a lot of fun to be second banana.
Related terms
Further reading
second banana on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
