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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

blockhead en · NOUN

Pronunciation

Etymology

1532, block (noun) + -head.

Meanings

  1. (colloquial) A stupid person.
    • Let me tell you something, blockhead: anyone who is stupid enough to do what you did deserves— 2005, Christopher Paolini, “The Burning Plains”, in Eldest, page 595:
    • […]like a conceited mechanic in a village ale-house, you would set down every one who differs from you as an ignorant blockhead[…] 1819, William Hazlitt, “A Letter to William Gifford, Esq.”, in A. R. Waller, Arnold Glover, editors, The Collected Works of William Hazlitt, volume 1, London: J. M. Dent & Co., published 1902, page 368:
    • Not all of them, by no means anywhere close to all of them, just the most notable blockheads among them — three altogether, two freshmen and one sophomore, all of whom were among the first to be expelled the next day — masturbated into pairs of stolen panties[…] 2008, Philip Roth, Indignation:
    • [S]o I think, blockheads, ſaid Manfred; what is it has ſcared you thus? 1764 December 24 (indicated as 1765), Onuphrio Muralto, translated by William Marshal [pseudonyms; Horace Walpole], chapter I, in The Castle of Otranto, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Lownds […], →OCLC, page 35:
    • "What a blockhead that Charlie Brown is!" 1953, Charles Schulz, Peanuts:
  2. (abbreviation, alt-of) Short for human blockhead
    • Waldo was sent that from an elderly blockhead named Fuzzy in Gibtown, Florida. That's the town to which most freaks retire. 2005, Brian M. Wiprud, Stuffed, →ISBN, page 262:
    • Burkhardt was a legendary figure in the sideshow world, a mentor and instructor to a new generation of blockheads and other working acts who now train in private classes at Coney Island USA's Sideshow School with Burkhardt's disciple Todd Robbins (Zigun 2006). 2016, M. Chemers, Staging Stigma: A Critical Examination of the American Freak Show, →ISBN:
    • He is a classic sideshow performer, entertaining crowds with feats such as sword swallowing, fire-eating, and chainsaw juggling. His specialty, however, is the human blockhead act, hammering six-inch nails up his nostrils. 2014, Louis J. Parascandola, John Parascandola -, A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion, →ISBN, page 306:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
block head alternative lexicographic
block-head alternative lexicographic
blockheads Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

blockheadism · blockheadess · blockheaded · blockheadish · blockheadly

Translations (84)

fr cancre (stupid person) · ja 薄鈍 (stupid person) · ca totxo (stupid person) · pl zakuty łeb (stupid person) · ga dundarlán (stupid person) · ja 木偶の坊 (stupid person) · pl bałwanica (stupid person) · ru о́лух (stupid person) · es idiota (stupid person) · izh tuhkapussi (stupid person) · izh oolo (stupid person) · tr aptal (stupid person) · pt idiota (stupid person) · it testone (stupid person) · cmn 傻子 (stupid person) · sk hlupák (stupid person) · sv dumhuvud (stupid person) · grc στέλεχος (stupid person) · izh bolvana (stupid person) · ga ceann maide (stupid person) · sk tupec (stupid person) · ru дура́к (stupid person) · gd amadan (stupid person) · fi puupää (stupid person) · mi moho (stupid person) · sk somár (stupid person) · ky акмак (stupid person) · tr mankafa (stupid person) · la buccō (stupid person) · ga ceann cipín (stupid person) · da dosmer (stupid person) · la caudex (stupid person) · izh vohma (stupid person) · fr imbécile (stupid person) · izh durakka (stupid person) · pl tępak (stupid person) · hi चपड़गंजू (stupid person) · la blennus (stupid person) · gd burraidh (stupid person) · pl bęcwał (stupid person) · tr gerzek (stupid person) · hy տխմար (stupid person) · pl dureń (stupid person) · ru тупи́ца (stupid person) · bg глупа́к (stupid person) · ko 바보 (stupid person) · izh foofana (stupid person) · la stīpes (stupid person) · fi läskipää (stupid person) · sa दुर्मति (stupid person) · tr hıyarağası (stupid person) · nl domkop (stupid person) · ky келесоо (stupid person) · lb Dräibiz (stupid person) · ota طوی (stupid person) · te మొద్దు (stupid person) · sv träskalle (woodhead) (stupid person) · de Dummkopf (stupid person) · la gurdus (stupid person) · nl stomkop (stupid person) · ga blocán (stupid person) · it idiota (stupid person) · cs hlupák (stupid person) · izh tuhkapää (stupid person) · ru болва́н (stupid person) · hy դանդալոշ (stupid person) · it imbecille (stupid person) · pl przygłup (stupid person) · ru бе́столочь (stupid person) · fi pölkkypää (stupid person) · pl bałwan (stupid person) · yue 豬頭丙 /猪头丙 (stupid person) · ja 鈍間 (stupid person) · tr ahmak (stupid person) · cs pitomec (stupid person) · cmn 傻瓜 (stupid person) · izh hapalka (stupid person) · izh tuhkuri (stupid person) · mi porokohete (stupid person) · ga lúmaire (stupid person) · ca totxa (stupid person) · ga ceann máilléid (stupid person) · ga cloigeann maide (stupid person) · mk тапчо (stupid person)

blockhead en · VERB

Pronunciation

Etymology

1532, block (noun) + -head.

Meanings

  1. To perform as a human blockhead.
    • Like an old-time sideshow, the acts included lying on a bed of nails, blockheading and, of course, fire-eating. 2007, Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman, Donald McNeilly, Vaudeville old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America, →ISBN:
  2. (rare) To behave in a stupid manner.
    • The operation of blockheading is much the same as that of beheading, which Charles I underwent. In both the head is severed from the body. The body goes around without benefit of head. The victim becomes a Headless Horseman, or that more common figure a Headless Pedestrian. In our day the operation is often done not on an executioner's block but on Paradise Avenue in Suburbia Manor. 1958, The Ethical Outlook: A Journal of the American Ethical Union:
    • Two years' blockading made fair Malta ours: A noble struggle! -- yet 't is thought (at Rading) That Britain's island shews superior pow'rs, To bear, and to survive, two years blockheading ! 1804, The Spirit of the Public Journals:
    • I have blockheading and boxing enough at Master Lovell's, I won't have it repeated here; and in a great passion, I threw the Virgil at his head, hit him in the face, and bruised his lip, and ran away. 1856, John Adams, The works of John Adams, second President of the United States, →ISBN:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
blockheads Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
blockheading Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
block-head alternative lexicographic
block head alternative lexicographic
blockheaded Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
blockheaded Tense=Past lexicographic