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Zany vs Cockamamie - What's the difference?

zany | cockamamie | Synonyms |

Zany is a synonym of cockamamie.


As adjectives the difference between zany and cockamamie

is that zany is unusual and bizarre in a funny, comical way; outlandish; clownish while cockamamie is foolish, ill-considered, silly, unbelievable.

As nouns the difference between zany and cockamamie

is that zany is (obsolete) a fool or clown especially one whose business on the stage was to imitate foolishly the actions of the principal clown while cockamamie is (us|chiefly|dated) a decal, a design that can be transferred to a surface.

zany

English

Adjective

(er)
  • unusual and bizarre in a funny, comical way; outlandish; clownish
  • ludicrously or incongruously comical

    • Synonyms

    * wacky

    Derived terms

    * zaniness

    Noun

    (zanies)
  • (obsolete) A fool or clown. Especially one whose business on the stage was to imitate foolishly the actions of the principal clown
  • * John Donne
    • Then write that I may follow, and so be / Thy echo, thy debtor, thy foil, thy zany .
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Preacher at once, and zany of thy age.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
    • So there he caught me lying like a zany on the ground. You may guess I stood at attention soon enough, but told him I was looking at the founds to see if they wanted underpinning from the floods.

    References

    * 1949', John Dover Wilson (compiler), ' Life in Shakespeare's England. A Book of Elizabethan Prose , Cambridge at the University Press. 1st ed. 1911, 2nd ed. 1913, 8th reprint. In Glossary and Notes

    cockamamie

    English

    Alternative forms

    * cockamamy * cockamammy

    Noun

    (cockamamies)
  • (US, chiefly, dated) A decal, a design that can be transferred to a surface.
  • * 1934 , , Call It Sleep , 1976, page 367,
    • "If it wuz a nickel," said one broody voice between the gratings, "I could buy fuh two cends cockamamies an' pud em on mine hull arm. An' den fuh t'ree cends I'll go to duh movies."
    "Yuh c'n buy fuh t'ree cends cockamamies ." Izzy crisply revised the dream.
  • * 1987 , Verbatim , Volumes 14-15, page 24,
    • As a youngster in The Bronx in the early 1930s, I would occasionally take my windfall of a few pennies to the local candy store and buy a strip of cockamamies , 'comic-style cartoons in brilliant colors, each about an inch by an inch and a half, transferable to forearm or forehead by wetting', preferably with saliva to make things agreeably messy.
  • * 2000 , Lillian Bressman, Tales of Mama and Other Reminiscences , page 201,
    • Lo and behold, in full color there was a photograph of an old glass-paned hanging cupboard with clusters of strawberry, cherry, green grape and apple “cockamamies ” pasted in the center of each pane.
  • * 2011 , Prospero Shimon, Autobiography of a Repaired Physician , unnumbered page,
    • She bought Japanese furniture in 1943 when everyone hated the Japanese. Goldfarb's furniture store on Pitkin Avenue could hardly give the stuff away. Evelyn had cockamamies —decorative plastic adhesives all over the walls.
  • A foolish or ridiculous person.
  • * 1970 , Esquire , Volume 74, page 69,
    • "What's going down here, you cockamamies , we're releasing two pictures this week about goddamn rich guys who get involved with their goddamn black tenants? What is this, an April Fool's memo?"

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Foolish, ill-considered, silly, unbelievable.
    • Do not give any more cockamamie reasons for failing to complete your assignment.
  • * 2004 , William Dritschilo, Earth Days: Ecology Comes Of Age As A Science , page 271,
    • Anyone arguing against even the most cockamamie idea, so long as that idea is supposed to benefit conservation, is viewed with suspicion, at best.
  • * 2005 , George D. Schultz, Returning: Can One Ever Go Back? , page 8,
    • And I dare say it'll get even more cockamamie .
  • * 2012 , Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2013: 25th Anniversary Edition , page 113,
    • Cowboys & Aliens has without any doubt the most cockamamie plot I've witnessed in many a moon.
  • * 2007 , Suzann Ledbetter, Halfway To Half Way , 2012, unnumbered page,
    • Notions didn't come more cockamamie than this one, but one unrepressed chortle and Delbert would be furious, or feel like a fool.
  • Trifling.

    • Synonyms

    * goofy, sappy, unreasonable, wacky, zany

    References