Charlie McCarthy

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English

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Etymology

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After Charlie McCarthy, the dummy of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.

Noun

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Charlie McCarthy

  1. (dated) A person under the control of another; a puppet or mouthpiece.
    • 1999, Department of Arkansas Heritage, Outside the Pale: The Architecture of Fay Jones (page 12)
      For the next thirty minutes, I was kind of a prop, his Charlie McCarthy, as he explained some of the things about the building.
    • 2008, Byron Williams, Strip Mall Patriotism: Moral Reflections on the Iraq War, page 127:
      The president has perfected his role as politics' answer to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen—using the Democrats as his Charlie McCarthy.