ventriloquist
/vɛnˈtrɪləkwɪst
/noun
A person, especially an entertainer, who can make their voice appear to come from somewhere else, typically a dummy of a person or animal.This is part of his insightful and terrifyingly personal series of poems from a ventriloquist's dummy to its puppeteer....
- Like two ventriloquists ' dummies or two sides of the same coin, both master and slave are locked in association.
- Talking of which, I've just got a great job: it's writing a 20 minute dialogue for a ventriloquist and dummy.
Derivatives
ventriloquial
- In reality they deny the expressive contradictions of the human face and lend the chorus, in particular, a strangely ventriloquial air.
- From another character, meanwhile, comes this ventriloquial statement: ‘I suppose that's the question, isn't it?
- Even in summer one has to be very lucky to see the cuckoo, for its call is ventriloquial and people have gone mad trying to locate it.
ventriloquism
/ noun ...- Should pantomime, ventriloquism, and verbiage be mixed?
- Mrs Richards said: ‘I have done puppet and ventriloquism shows all over the country, but it's great to get the puppets on display in Essex.’
- It is a mix of wit, ventriloquism, shadow play and mime.
ventriloquize
- Her baby is a hand puppet, for which she is totally unable to ventriloquize a voice.
- Fanon famously and compellingly ventriloquizes the statement implicitly directed to him by French culture: ‘You come too late, much too late.’
- In this letter, Belford ventriloquizes Clarissa's voice perfectly.
ventriloquy
- But what transforms these lip synced sound bites beyond mere ventriloquy is the genius of Lip Service's fluid vibrations and stop-cut undulations.
- As always this amounts to a slightly stylized ventriloquy, creating an effect of distance, things seen at one remove.
- Accessories can help your iPod do many things, but radio ventriloquy is not one of them.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from modern Latin ventriloquium (from Latin venter 'belly' + loqui 'speak') + -ist.
Ventriloquists speak with their belly—the word is based on Latin venter ‘belly’ and loqui ‘to speak’, from which elocution (early 16th century), eloquent (Late Middle English), and loquacious (late 17th century) also derive. Originally a ventriloquist was a person appearing to speak from their abdomen because of spiritual possession. For someone who practises the skill for public entertainment it dates from just before 1800.
Rhymes
- found
- foundation
- foundational
- foundation course
- foundation garment
- foundation stone
- foundation subjects
- founder
- founder effect
- founder member
- founder's day
- founding father
- founding member
- foundling
- found object
- foundress
- foundry
- fount
- fountain
- fountained
- fountainhead
- fountain pen
- Fountain Valley
- four
- four-bagger