Kewpie Doll

/ ˈkjuːpɪ /

noun

1. a doll having rosy cheeks and a curl of hair on its head
2. often not capitals any brightly coloured doll, commonly given as a prize at carnivals

Word History and Origins

Origin of Kewpie Doll¹

C20 kewpie , perhaps from Cupid

Example Sentences

Take the Kewpie Doll, which used to be made out of fragile bisque porcelain until the invention of celluloid turned her future around.

From New York Times

Its eroticized Kewpie doll girls and pornographic tropes enveloped in a saccharine monochromatic atmosphere effectively conveyed the male inability to see women as anything but sex objects, as well as the damage this outlook visits upon both the see-er and seen.

From New York Times

She looked like a Kewpie doll gone goth.

From New York Times

And another time a kewpie doll with feather skirts was on the mantelpiece when he came home, and Daisy was gentle and hard and would not put it away.

From Literature

The book’s cartoon illustrations, by the Pop-Surrealist artist Todd Schorr, depict Baby Divine with the guileless face of a Kewpie doll and the sultry mien of a lounge singer, wearing a jaunty floral diaper and with a giant flower decorating her curlicues of orange hair.

From The New Yorker