dunderhead

dunder +‎ head

dunderhead (plural dunderheads)

1. (somewhat dated) A stupid person; a dunce.
   • 1883, Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, ch. 6:

     You're the stupidest dunderhead I ever saw or ever heard of, so help me Moses!

   • 1915, Basil King, The Side Of The Angels, ch. 3:

     Poor old fellow's a dunderhead. That's where it is in a nutshell. Never could make a living. . . . Nice old chap as ever lived. Only impractical, dreamy. Gentle as a sheep—and no more capable of running that big, expensive plant than a motherly old ewe.

   • 2004 May 23, Maureen Dowd, "Bay of Goats," New York Times (retrieved 29 Nov 2017):

     Cheney & Company swooned over Mr. Chalabi because he was telling them what they wanted to hear. . . . A half-dozen dunderheads who thought they knew everything assumed they could control Mr. Chalabi and use him as the instrument of their utopian fantasies.

• See also Thesaurus:fool

• dunderheaded