thinking man's crumpet

English

Etymology

Coined 1960s by Frank Muir to describe Joan Bakewell, following the latter’s appearances in high-brow television discussion programmes such as BBC2's Late Night Line-Up.

From crumpet (“sexually desirable woman (UK slang)”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

thinking man's crumpet (plural thinking man's crumpets)

1. (British, slang) An intelligent and good-looking woman, particularly one who has a high profile in the broadcast media.

   Joan Bakewell was famously described as "the thinking man's crumpet".

Usage notes

Frequently the thinking man’s crumpet.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:beautiful woman

Related terms

• crumpet, bit of crumpet, piece of crumpet