not the sharpest knife in the drawer

English

Noun

not the sharpest knife in the drawer

1. (humorous, euphemistic) Lacking in intelligence; dimwitted.
   • 1994 Sep. 5, Richard Hoffer, "Get Smart!," Sports Illustrated:

     You can block or tackle, or you can do some exotic things with a football cradled under your arm, but you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to book learning.

   • 2000, Tami Hoag, Ashes to Ashes, →ISBN, p. 378:
   • 2003,Lucille Bluth, Arrested Development, S:1 E:3 “And I know he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he's sensitive, Michael,”

     “He fits in a lot of ways, but he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, is he?”

     “Maybe he just plays it stupid so people expect less of him.”

   • 2009 Aug. 11, Paul Byrnes, "Tyson," Brisbane Times (Australia):

     [A] man who has lost every dollar he ever won–somewhere north of $US300 million ($370 million)–and done three years for rape is possibly not the sharpest knife in the drawer, nor the most likeable.

Synonyms

• not the sharpest tool in the shed
• dumb as a bag of hammers
• dumb as a box of rocks
• See also Thesaurus:stupid
• Appendix:Snowclones/not the X-est in the Y