Charlie McCarthy

English Etymology After Charlie McCarthy, the dummy of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. Noun ? en dated A person under the control of another; a puppet or mouthpiece. 1999, Department of Arkansas Heritage, Outside the Pale: The Architecture of Fay Jones (page 12) For the next thirty minutes, I was kind of a prop, his Charlie McCarthy, as he explained some of the things about the building. en 2008 Byron Williams Strip Mall Patriotism: Moral Reflections on the Iraq War 127 The president has perfected his role as politics' answer to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen—using the Democrats as his Charlie McCarthy. en eponyms