gormless

• gaumless, gawmless

From dialectal English gaum (“understanding”) +‎ -less (“without”), from Old Norse gaum, from Proto-Germanic *gaumaz, *gaumō (“understand”). The ‘r’ found in this spelling is a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔːmləs/

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gormless (comparative more gormless, superlative most gormless)

1. (chiefly Britain, of a person) Lacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish.
   • 1845 October – 1846 June​, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XXI, in Wuthering Heights: A Novel, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, publisher, […], published December 1847, OCLC 156123328:

     Did I ever look so stupid: so gormless as Joseph calls it?

   • 1988, Roald Dahl, Matilda, page 4:

     But Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.

   • 1990, Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures, page 171:

     There was a sort of gormless unstoppability about him that she found rather fascinating.

   • 2007 July 21, J. K. Rowling, “The Wedding, Auntie Muriel”, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter; 7), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 141:

     Hmm. Made an excuse, did he? Not as gormless as he looks in press photographs, then.

   • 2015, Adele Abbott, Witch Is When Everything Went Crazy, page 33:

     “Don’t just stand there looking gormless. There’s plenty of work to do in the back.”

• (lacking intelligence): dull, slow, stupid; inexperienced, naive

• gormlessly, gormlessness