carny

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑː(ɹ)ni/

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)ni

• carney
• carnie

carny (countable and uncountable, plural carnies)

1. (informal, countable) A person who works in a carnival (often one who uses exaggerated showmanship or fraud).

   Synonym: showie (Australia)

   • 1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC, page 276:

     The Reverend Foster, self-ordained—or directly ordained by God, depending on authority cited—had an instinct for the pulse of his times stronger than that of a skilled carnie sizing up a mark.

   • 2012 May 20, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     Bart spies an opportunity to make a quick buck so he channels his inner carny and posits his sinking house as a natural wonder of the world and its inhabitants as freaks, barking to dazzled spectators, “Behold the horrors of the Slanty Shanty! See the twisted creatures that dwell within! Meet Cue-Ball, the man with no hair!”

2. (uncountable) The jargon used by carnival workers.
3. (informal, countable) A carnival.

• carney

carny (third-person singular simple present carnies, present participle carnying, simple past and past participle carnied)

1. (dialectal) To cajole, wheedle, or coax.
2. To lead, Edward May, 1580.

The Apostles did not only keepe wiues, but also carnied them about (1 Corintians 9:5).

• Edward May (1580) The institutions of Christian religion, written by the reverend father, M. John Calvin, compendiously abridged by Edmond Bunnie Bachelor of divinity; and translated into English by Edward May, page 229

carny

1. (dialectal) Flattery.

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

• Caryn, Cryan, nacry

• zarny (obsolete)

From Proto-Slavic *čьrnъ.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtsarnɨ]

carny

1. black

• Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928) “carny”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
• Starosta, Manfred (1999) “carny”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag