dimwit
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dimwit
Explanation
A dimwit is a person who's not very smart. If you catch your friend sending a text message while he's driving, you can yell at him to put his phone down and call him a dimwit. No one wants to be called a dimwit, since it implies incompetence and a low IQ — it's important to use this word carefully to avoid offending someone. Still, when your brother leaves a pizza unattended in a room with his two big dogs, you'll probably have to say, "Well of course they ate it, you dimwit." The word was coined in the US, as 1920s college slang.
Vocabulary lists containing dimwit
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.
She had a Twitter tiff with the former president’s son last September; after Donald Trump Jr. made an online comment about Navarro’s weight, she called him a dimwit.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2022
“Amadeus” serves Joseph no better than it does Salieri, portraying the ruler as a dithering dimwit.
From The New Yorker ● May 27, 2019
Mr. Leguizamo’s dimwit stance is unsustainable, in part because much of the history, despite the show’s premise, is actually quite familiar.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2017
Eastwood has made violent films, arty films, heartwarming films and a handful of dimwit comedies.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 3, 2017
“Or perhaps I will mumble my way through my interview like a dimwit and be sent home again in shame,” she fretted.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
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.
