as in scatterbrain
a silly flighty person
forced to endure a long flight with a flibbertigibbet as a seat companion
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Recent Examples of flibbertigibbet
Duvall is a big reason why: All the film’s insights into the slipperiness of identity are there in her casually virtuosic, veritable dual performance, in which a funny flibbertigibbet loses hold of herself as the world around seems to splinter into something frighteningly new.
—
A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 19 July 2024
Projects about Monroe have handled her personal life to varying degrees of success, often leaning into her flibbertigibbet persona, her struggles with addiction, and the paradox of her oozing sexuality and her little girl brokenness.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 24 Jan. 2023
Miranda Hart is touching as the flibbertigibbet Miss Bates, whom Emma thoughtlessly mocks.
—Caryn James, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Feb. 2020
The thought leader of the hippie girls is played by that avatar of feminine passive-aggressive flibbertigibbet solipsism, Lena Dunham, the polar opposite of the no-nonsense, two-fisted, self-contained, masculine ideal represented by Cliff.
—Kyle Smith, National Review, 13 Dec. 2019
Instead of acting cool and sophisticated our narrator prattled like a flibbertigibbet.
—Sam Sacks, WSJ, 6 Apr. 2018
Warning: The book has my three-year-old calling her grandmother a flibbertigibbet.
—Megan Gambino, Smithsonian, 18 Dec. 2017
And never mind that its mother is a flibbertigibbet who has no business having a baby.
—Matt Giles, Longreads, 29 Sep. 2017
A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 19 July 2024
Projects about Monroe have handled her personal life to varying degrees of success, often leaning into her flibbertigibbet persona, her struggles with addiction, and the paradox of her oozing sexuality and her little girl brokenness.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 24 Jan. 2023
Miranda Hart is touching as the flibbertigibbet Miss Bates, whom Emma thoughtlessly mocks.
—Caryn James, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Feb. 2020
The thought leader of the hippie girls is played by that avatar of feminine passive-aggressive flibbertigibbet solipsism, Lena Dunham, the polar opposite of the no-nonsense, two-fisted, self-contained, masculine ideal represented by Cliff.
—Kyle Smith, National Review, 13 Dec. 2019
Instead of acting cool and sophisticated our narrator prattled like a flibbertigibbet.
—Sam Sacks, WSJ, 6 Apr. 2018
Warning: The book has my three-year-old calling her grandmother a flibbertigibbet.
—Megan Gambino, Smithsonian, 18 Dec. 2017
And never mind that its mother is a flibbertigibbet who has no business having a baby.
—Matt Giles, Longreads, 29 Sep. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for flibbertigibbet
Noun
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Instead, she was cast as the lovable ditz on Nickelodeon’s Victorious, which unexpectedly thrust her to a kind of teen idol status.—
Lacey Rose,
The Hollywood Reporter,
3 Sep. 2019
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Besides offering a cash prize of up to $250,000, the show can help change perception of a villain or a ditz and be a springboard for their next casting.—
Shivani Gonzalez,
New York Times,
23 Jan. 2025
Noun
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It was shot in portrait because it was shot in Instagram by and for a woman who was losing her mind in quarantine and had fully let the sillies take the wheel.—
Ego Nwodim,
TIME,
12 Feb. 2025
-
Some more sillies from last night’s GRAMMY nominees reception.—
Kimberlee Speakman,
People.com,
4 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Egg laying behavior of common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus): Data based on field video-recordings The New York Academy of Sciences.—
Cody Cottier,
Discover Magazine,
28 Jan. 2025
-
For evolutionary biologists, the term cuckoldry originated to describe cuckoo birds who lay their eggs in other species’ nests, leaving their offspring to be unknowingly raised by foster parents.—
Brooke Scelza,
Scientific American,
19 Sep. 2024
Noun
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Both arenas are designed around performers, sometimes made to look the fool and other times a noble voice of the people, but where one lands always depends on the moment in which a joke or plea is delivered.—
Harrison Richlin,
IndieWire,
15 Feb. 2025
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Don’t let the shiny patent black leather fool you, though.—
Amelia McBride,
Travel + Leisure,
14 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
The zoo learned of the case of highly pathogenic avian flu (HPAI) on Tuesday after test results came back on the goose, which had died on the grounds.—
Theresa Braine,
New York Daily News,
31 Jan. 2025
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The goose appeared to have reached that altitude by a combination of flying and walking, rangers in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest said.—
Don Sweeney,
Sacramento Bee,
15 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Stan Brooks: That’s the pumping-iron term for somebody who’s kind of a nitwit.—
Benjamin Naddaff-Hafrey,
Vulture,
18 Dec. 2024
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The white supremacist rally that interrupted the mayor's lunch in Howell on Saturday wasn't overly impressive, really — just a dozen or so nitwits, and one ghost.—
Neal Rubin,
Detroit Free Press,
25 July 2024
Cite this Entry
“Flibbertigibbet.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flibbertigibbet. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
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