POPINJAY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Popinjay

"Popinjay" Quotes from Famous Books

... me of little else that signifies. I met a lady there with whom I had some talk, a friar, a fool, a popinjay, and some soldiers. But,"—he shifted abruptly, his tone growing haughty—"whatever I did, I did as best seemed to me, and I have yet to learn that the Count of Aquila must give account of what he does and where he does ...

— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini

... a waste," laughed the trapper. "I see you are over ears in love, chief. I know precisely how you feel. I was once in love myself. It did not last long though, for my flame gave my keepsakes to a good for nothing popinjay from down east; one for a string to bind round a broken knapsack, the other to carry home with him for a show. That was enough for me. I just told her I was done ...

— The American Family Robinson - or, The Adventures of a Family lost in the Great Desert of the West • D. W. Belisle

... and through dilettante, jack-of-all-trades, he is a man only less poverty-stricken than a tramp. He has the illusion of efficiency. He wonders that society generally judges that he is not worth his salt, that on every battlefield Hotspur curses him for a popinjay, that in every company of master workmen met for council he is at most a tolerated guest. The judgment upon him—not my judgment, but the judgment which the days thrust in his face—is this: that when there is important ...

— Modern American Prose Selections • Various

Words linked to "Popinjay" : egoist, egotist, swellhead, parrot