dunderheaded

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

dunder + headed

Adjective

dunderheaded (comparative more dunderheaded, superlative most dunderheaded)

  1. Stupid, foolish.
    • 1870, Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, ch. 4:
      Much nearer sixty years of age than fifty, with a flowing outline of stomach, and horizontal creases in his waistcoat; reputed to be rich; voting at elections in the strictly respectable interest; morally satisfied that nothing but he himself has grown since he was a baby; how can dunder-headed Mr. Sapsea be otherwise than a credit to Cloisterham, and society?
    • 1915, D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow, ch. 1:
      He went doggedly across the fields with his terrier, and looked at everything with a jaundiced eye. . . . [W]as he a dunderheaded baby, not man enough to be like the other young fellows who drank a good deal and wenched a little without any question, and were satisfied?
    • 2003 June 27, A. O. Scott, "Film Review: Driver's Ed That Was Covered in Blood," New York Times (retrieved 29 Nov 2017):
      The best way to see Hell's Highway, which opens today in Manhattan, might be on a double bill with 2 Fast 2 Furious. Yes, one is a scholarly documentary and the other a dunderheaded action picture, but both, in their different ways, offer testimony to the love affair between the movie camera and the automobile

Derived terms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.