dopey
Americanadjective
-
stupid; inane.
It was rather dopey of him to lock himself out.
-
sluggish or befuddled from or as from the use of narcotics or alcohol.
adjective
-
slang silly
-
informal half-asleep or in a state of semiconsciousness, as when under the influence of a drug
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dopey
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Or do we just revert to whining about our dopey NFL fantasy teams?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
As heroines Brenda and Cindy, respectively, Hall and Faris were daffy, dopey and committed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
His lead, Pattinson’s Mickey Barnes, is a dopey, instantly lovable voluntary “Expendable,” jettisoned into space to be a human guinea pig who will be pivotal in colonizing a faraway planet.
From Salon ● Mar. 7, 2025
Even when it gets dopey, “Manhunt” is still engrossing — fun, even.
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2024
That sort of wiped the dopey smile off my face.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
![]()
What it does have time for often feels less than vital: earnest exposition, wall-rattling fisticuffs and comic asides that prove dopier, but also sweeter, than those glib Whedon one-liners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2021
Why did John Krasinski’s character get progressively dopier until he became the kind of clueless dad most often seen in commercials asking his wife how to use a mop?
From Slate ● Jan. 2, 2019
The local small fry rarely earn a second glance — Bagel the Chiweenie with her “redrum” bark, for example. But larger, dopier dogs set her off.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2016
With the ghost looming, the petty concerns of the local young-mom cadre look dopier than ever to Bridget, who gradually loses patience with the conventions that rule her narrow world.
From New York Times ● Oct. 24, 2014
Alice was also louder and more argumentative, and Norton was dopier, unlikely as that may sound.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Charlotte Towner said of her American bully XL Coco: "She's just the sloppiest, dopiest dog I've ever owned. She's great with other people, her only downside is she gets excited when she sees people."
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2023
“The Secret: Dare to Dream,” a romantic drama about the power of magical thinking, may not be the worst movie of 2020, but it has to be the dopiest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2020
They’re the dopiest duo ever to have traveled to the past and the future, heaven and hell.
From New York Times ● Mar. 20, 2019
In some respects, the parade is a thermometer calibrated to precisely read the temperature of popular culture at its dopiest.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 21, 2018
Say, that was the dopiest bunch of kids I ever saw.
From Shorty McCabe by F. Vaux (Francis Vaux) Wilson
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.