puppeteer

puppet +‎ -eer

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

puppeteer (plural puppeteers)

1. A person who uses a puppet.

   Synonym: puppet master

   Hyponym: sock puppeteer

2. (figurative) Someone who is manipulative and thus able to get people to do what they want or events to develop in the way they want, respectively, in a puppet-like manner.

• (person responsible for another's actions): organ grinder

• puppeteering
• sock puppeteer

puppeteer (third-person singular simple present puppeteers, present participle puppeteering, simple past and past participle puppeteered)

1. (transitive) To control a puppet.
2. (transitive) To control a person, event, or organisation from behind the scenes.

• “puppeteer”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “puppeteer”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• "puppeteer" in WordNet 3.1, Princeton University, 2011.