patsy
/ˈpætsi/
patsy noun: a person who is easily manipulated, victimized, or made to take the blame for something.
Noun
patsy (plural patsies)
- A person who is easily manipulated, victimized, or made to take the blame for something.
- And now it's quite obvious that instead of Mr Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney listening attentively to Mr Blair's sage advice, they've simply been using him as a patsy—a convenient fig-leaf.2003 March 16, Terry Jones, “Poor Tony Blair wakes up”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Synonyms:
- sucker
- A conspirator, secretly designated by co-conspirators to take full blame and punishment for a wrongdoing, particularly an assassination; a fall guy.
Verb
patsy (third-person singular simple present patsies, present participle patsying, simple past and past participle patsied)
- To treat (a person) as a patsy or sucker; to pin the blame on.
- Patsying me! Where the hell does he come off? Who ever heard of him? He can patsy the leaders in those night club dives but he can't do that here and get away with it.1939, Arthur Kober, Pardon Me for Pointing, page 124
- To mess around; to waste time.
- I was in no mood for patsying around, and I let him have it with both barrels.2013, Tony Kelly, Red Card: The Soccer Star Who Lost it All to Gambling, page 105
Proper noun capitalized: Patsy
Patsy
- A diminutive of the female given name Patricia.
- A diminutive of the male given name Patrick.
- A diminutive of the female given name Martha.
patsy meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
patsy in Hindi
- पैट्सी, पैत्सी, पैटसी
patsy in Marathi
- पॅटसी, पॅट्सी, पॅटसायंग
patsy in Urdu
- پیٹسی, پٹسی, پیٹسسی
patsy in Bengali
- প্যাটসি, পাটসি, প্যাটসি-র কাছে
More languagesFewer languages
- patsy in Telugu
- ప్యాట్సీ, పాట్సీ, ప్యాట్సి
- patsy in Malayalam
- പാറ്റ്സി, പറ്റ്സി, പാറ്റ്സ്സി
- patsy in Kannada
- ಪ್ಯಾಟ್ಸಿ, ಪ್ಯಾಟ್ಸೀ
- patsy in Punjabi
- ਪੈਟਸੀ, ਪੈਟਸਸੀ
- patsy in Gujarati
- પૅટસી, પૅટ્સી, પાટસી
- patsy in Odia
- ପ୍ଯ଼ାଟ୍ସି, ପାଟ୍ସି, ପାଟସୀ
- patsy in Nepali
- प्याट्सी, प्याटसी, प्याट्सि
Synonyms of patsy
Forms of patsy
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | patsies |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | patsies |
| present participle | patsying |
| past participle | patsied |
| past | patsied |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Patsie |
Origin of patsy
The term dates back at least to the 1870s in the United States, close to the peak of Irish migration. The OED's recent revisions link Patsy with Pat and Paddy, the stereotype of the bogtrotter just off the boat. The American Heritage Dictionary and Online Etymology Dictionary quotes the OED it may derive from the Italian pazzo (“madman”), and souther Italian dialect paccio (“fool”). Another possibility is the term derives from Patsy Bolivar, a character in an 1880s minstrel skit who was blamed whenever anything went wrong, in Broadway musical comedies, for example in The Errand Boy [1904] and Patsy in Politics [1907].
From the clipping of Patricia or Patrick + -sy (hypocoristic suffix).
Questions about patsy
- What does patsy mean?
- Patsy means a person who is easily manipulated, victimized, or made to take the blame for something.
- What is patsy in Hindi?
- Patsy in Hindi is पैट्सी, पैत्सी, पैटसी. See Patsy meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is patsy?
- Patsy can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce patsy?
- Patsy is pronounced /ˈpætsi/.
- What is the plural of patsy?
- The plural of patsy is patsies.
Words near patsy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: patsy (page history and authors); Patsy (page history and authors); patsy (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patsy (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “patsy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/patsy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.