dummy
dum·my / ˈdəmē/ • n. (pl. -mies) 1. a model or replica of a human being: a waxwork dummy. ∎ a figure used for displaying or fitting clothes: a tailor's dummy. ∎ a ventriloquist's doll. ∎ a person taking no real part or present only for appearances; a figurehead. ∎ Bridge the declarer's partner, whose cards are exposed on the table after the opening lead and played by the declarer. ∎ Bridge the exposed hand of the declarer's partner. ∎ an imaginary fourth player in whist: [as adj.] dummy whist. 2. an object designed to resemble and serve as a substitute for the real or usual one: tests using stuffed owls and wooden dummies | [as adj.] a dummy torpedo. ∎ an enterprise existing mainly on paper, set up to facilitate fraud: [mainly as adj.] an elaborate scheme of dummy invoices, and even a dummy corporation, designed to underprice products. ∎ a prototype or mock-up, esp. of a book or the layout of a page. ∎ a blank round of ammunition. ∎ [as adj.] Gram. denoting a word that has no semantic content but is used to maintain grammatical structure: a dummy subject, as in “it is” or “there are.”3. inf. a stupid person. • v. (-mies, -mied) [tr.] create a prototype or mock-up of a book or page: officials dummied up a set of photos.PHRASAL VERBS: dummy up inf. keep quiet; give no information.