Definition of "marionette" [mar•i•o•nette]

• A jointed puppet manipulated from above by strings or wires attached to its limbs. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The boy who would be king took on a number of iconic roles in his early days; in 1994, he voiced Simba in "The Lion King," and in the two subsequent years, he played Tom Sawyer in "Tom and Huck," and the title marionette/boy in "Pinnochio.""
• "You trolls are useless; except for when your being held like a marionette from the Corporations and special interests using your ignorant ambition against you, you neo-Con (artist) moron."
• "And that horrible haircut and fat, round face made him look like the Chucky marionette from the horror movie of the same name."
• "Bringing home with him the interest he developed for puppet theater in China, Ruizendaal returned in 1991 to the Netherlands where he entered the doctoral program at Leiden University and specialized in Chinese marionette theater."
• "Those frown lines you see every morning, getting deeper, running from each corner of your mouth down to the edge of your chin, those are called marionette lines."