Other forms: dummies; dummied; dummying
Have you ever seen an entertainer make a doll look like it’s talking? The entertainer is using a dummy — a doll made to look like a person.
A dummy is a type of doll that looks like a person. Entertainers called ventriloquists can make dummies appear to talk. The automobile industry uses dummies in cars to study how safe cars are during a crash. A dummy can also be anything that looks real but doesn’t work: a fake. Actors in a play might use certain props that are dummies, such as a dummy laptop. Dummy is also an insult used to mean “an ignorant person.”