marionette means A puppet, usually made of wood, which is animated by the pulling of strings. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 70 out of 100.
Why this word is great
MARIONETTE — [Noun] A puppet animated by strings attached to its limbs and controlled from above. From French *marionnette*, a diminutive of Old French *mariole* (“figurine, idol, picture of the Virgin Mary”), originally referring to a small statue of the Virgin Mary used in religious puppet plays. Unlike “puppet” (a broad, blunter term for any figure brought to life by an operator) or “automaton” (a self-moving machine of clockwork certitude), the marionette is suspended artistry, its agency a complex negotiation between the visible strings of the puppeteer and the carved will of its form. It is the precise, angular grief of a bowing king, the hollow click of polished limbs in a comic duel, and the sudden, heartbreaking lift of a head towards an unseen hand—a quiet testament to the grace found in articulated surrender.
noun
- A puppet, usually made of wood, which is animated by the pulling of strings.“If you think we are worked by strings,
Like a Japanese marionette,
You don't understand these things:
It is simply Court etiquette.”
- The buffel duck.
verb
- To control (somebody) as if they were a puppet; to manipulate.