idlehead

English

Etymology 1

A compound from idle +‎ head; compare idleheaded.

Noun

idlehead (plural idleheads)

1. One who is vain and foolish.
   • 1606, Matthew Sutcliffe, The Petition Apolojeticall of Lay Papists, page 95:

     Wee may therefore conclude vpon their own confession against them that if papists neither haue been nor can be loyal to princes, or louing to their country desiring to bring both vnder the pop, & if their seruice be idolatrous, & their doctrine hereticall, and their practis superstitious as iş formerly demonstrated, howsoeuer idleheads prate of toleration of popery, that neither their religion, nor their audacious boldnes & sawcines is any longer to be tolerated, we may also conclude that the reasons alledged by this resolution in religion are either false or not concludent.

   • 1631, Peter Heylyn, The Historie of that Most Famous Saint and Souldier of Christ Iesus St George of Cappadochia, page 36:

     But now St. George must eyther poast away unto the Land of Faeries, and there remaine for ever, with other the Chimeras of an idlehead; or which is worse, bee layde for all eternity in the pit of horrour, with Heretickes and Atheists.

   • 2007, Nickell John Romjue, The Black Box: Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud—stories, page 196:

     Will my visit disabuse you of that confusion, you idleheads?

   • 2014, James Alan Gardner, Ascending:

     How else could I show the world I was not a worthless idle-head?

   • 2020, Terence Kuch, Five O'Clock on the Sun:

     It did ensure, however, that those advance who are serious about dreaming, not just idleheads who can't control their dreams, or can't remember them.

Etymology 2

From Middle English idelhed, equivalent to idle +‎ -head.

Noun

idlehead (uncountable)

1. obsolete form of idlehood