dullard
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of dullard
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at dull, -ard
Explanation
If something isn’t sharp, it’s dull. This can apply to pencils and people — if you’re sharp, you’re a smarty-pants, but if you’re dull, you’re a dullard. It even sounds kind of dumb, dullard. Dullard is an old-fashioned word for a dumb person. If you have to explain to someone how to sit in a chair, you’re probably talking to a dullard (or a toddler). It's rude to call someone a dullard, but we all feel like dullards sometimes, especially when we make mistakes or can't understand something.
Vocabulary lists containing dullard
"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
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The Serpent King
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
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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.
In a Senate full of ambitious members, Colorado Republican Wayne Allard is so bland that his critics have dubbed him "Dullard."
From Time Magazine Archive
But she only said this to frighten Jack the Dullard; and the clerks gave a great crow of delight, and each one spurted a blot out of his pen on to the floor.
From Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by Andersen, H. C. (Hans Christian)
Dullard as you must esteem Kurwenal, this time you shall not chide him.
From The Wagnerian Romances by Brownell, Gertrude Hall
But she only said this to frighten Jack the Dullard: and the clerks gave a great crow of delight, and each one spurted a blot out of his pen on to the floor.
From What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales by Dulcken, H. W. (Henry William)
Nothing daunted, the Dullard watched his opportunity, and delivered a first-class Royal Prince on the Proser's right eye, half closing that optic.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 3, 1892 by Burnand, F. C. (Francis Cowley), Sir
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.
