imbecile
Americannoun
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Informal. a dunce; blockhead; dolt.
Don't stand there like an imbecile. Open the door!
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Psychology. (no longer in technical use; now considered offensive) a person of the second order in a former and discarded classification of intellectual disability, above the level of idiocy, having a mental age of seven or eight years and an intelligence quotient of 25 to 50.
noun
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psychol a person of very low intelligence (IQ of 25 to 50), usually capable only of guarding himself against danger and of performing simple mechanical tasks under supervision
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informal an extremely stupid person; dolt
adjective
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of or like an imbecile; mentally deficient; feeble-minded
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stupid or senseless
an imbecile thing to do
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of imbecile
First recorded in 1540–50; earlier imbecill, from Latin imbēcillus “weak”; -ile replacing -ill by confusion with suffix -ile
Explanation
If your best friend calls you an imbecile, he's implying that you're stupid, and he's probably pretty angry with you. An imbecile is an extremely stupid person. The noun imbecile is used informally as an insult to mean "fool". Its origins are in the Latin word imbecille, "weak or feeble," and it was an official medical term for people with a specific (and low) I.Q. in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Patients who were classified as imbeciles were said to have no more intelligence than a seven year-old child.
Vocabulary lists containing imbecile
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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.
Stupid he who gives, Imbecile he who does not take.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mr. Nicholas B. concluded his bald narrative with the word "Imbecile," uttered with the utmost deliberation.
From A Personal Record by Conrad, Joseph
Imbecile discomfiture and rage—so that, as he walked about his room, he ground his teeth—had complete possession of him.
From Dombey and Son by Dickens, Charles
Nature alone did not favor them Imbecile and immoral minds fell to the lot of the aristocrat as often as to the lowly born.
From Mizora: A Prophecy A MSS. Found Among the Private Papers of the Princess Vera Zarovitch by Lane, Mary E. Bradley
That is, producing things or doing things which--though useful and necessary to the Imbecile System--cannot be described as the necessaries of life or the benefits of civilization.
From The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Tressell, Robert
Definitions 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.
