dunderheaded

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From dunder +‎ headed.

Adjective

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dunderheaded (comparative more dunderheaded, superlative most dunderheaded)

  1. Stupid, foolish.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stupid
    • 1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, [], published 1870, →OCLC:
      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, chapter 1, in The Rainbow:
      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”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 November 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

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