Dictionary

dunderheaded en · ADJ

Etymology

From dunder + headed.

Meanings

1. Stupid, foolish.
   • 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 2003 June 27, A. O. Scott, “Film Review: Driver's Ed That Was Covered in Blood”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 Nov 2017:
   • 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? 1915, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 1, in The Rainbow:
   • He knew all about it, dammit! It was no pleasure for him to have the thing shoved down his neck by every dunderheaded pumpkin-faced noodle in the universe! 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 141:
   • 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? 1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1870, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

dunderheadedness

Relateds

dunderhead

Synonyms

ass-brained · doltish · dull · dim · drowsy · thick as a plank · empty-headed · mentally challenged · slow-witted · dumb as dirt · dopey · crackbrained · moronic · muttonheaded · dim-headed · inane · cerebrally challenged · pratty · dim-witted · chowderheaded · chuckleheaded · uninformed · peabrained · smooth-brained · sheep-headed · unclever · foolish · feeble-minded · lowbrow · thick as a brick · fuzzy-minded · shit-for-brains · flea-brained · fuzzy-headed · thick as mince · hammer-headed · thick as pig shit · half-witted · thick as two short planks · imbecilic · monosynaptic · dumb as a sack of hammers · silly · woolly-headed · dense · bee-brained · mindless · mentally retarded · not the sharpest tool in the shed · thick · vacuous · brainless · thick as a whale omelette · cretinous · unintelligent · numbskulled · addlepated · retarded · dumb as a box of rocks · ignorant · blockheaded · nitwitted · quarter-witted · childish · soft · puerile · dumb as a doorknob · stupid · beefheaded · beetle-headed · rockheaded · dumb as a post · wool-headed · woolly-minded · dumber than a box of rocks · dumber than a rock · goofy · dunderheaded · purblind · dull-minded · half-brained · sharp as a bowling ball · dumb as an ox · dull-headed · bullet-headed · slow · thick as champ · thickheaded · thick-skulled · pudding-headed · daft · airheaded · fatheaded · dumb as a bag of hammers · addlebrained · boofheaded · boneheaded · fuckwitted · lamebrained · not the sharpest knife in the drawer · dull-witted · Boeotian · vacant · lumpish · buffle-headed · witless · intellectually challenged · idiotic · thickwitted · simple · not the sharpest crayon in the box · insipid · dumb · dozy · slow on the uptake · braindead · dim-bulb · birdbrained · wooden-headed · lunkheaded · beef-witted · oafish · bubbleheaded · obtuse · knuckleheaded · unapprehensive · unsmart · ridiculous · dented · stolid