dunderheaded

English

Alternative forms

• dunder-headed

Etymology

dunder +‎ headed

Adjective

dunderheaded (comparative more dunderheaded, superlative most dunderheaded)

1. Stupid, foolish.
   • 1870, Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, ch. 4:

     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, The Rainbow, ch. 1:

     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," New York Times (retrieved 29 Nov 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

• dunderheadedness

Related terms

• dunderhead