gormless
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does gormless mean? Gormless is a slang word meaning stupid, dull, or clumsy. Gormless is typically applied to people (and sometimes their actions). It is chiefly used in the U. K. Example: I feel totally gormless whenever I make a silly mistake like that.
Etymology
Origin of gormless
First recorded in 1740–50; respelling of earlier gaumless, from Northern English and Scots dialect gaum “heed, attention” (from Old Norse gaumr ) + -less
Vocabulary lists containing gormless
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.
This is the least intentional of this trio of gormless, spray-and-pray LPs but perhaps the most layered and ambitious.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
The Telegraph's Robbie Collin awarded it one star, calling it a "fatuously graphic" and "colossally gormless" series, adding that it contained the "worst dialogue" of the year.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2023
The thing is, though, despite its nauseating title and its fully male perspective, this is a dramatically rich and nuanced film – and really not the gormless sexist mess it might have been.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 29, 2019
Even gormless corporations try to get in on the act, like when Disney attempted a Mickey Mouse/“Unknown Pleasures” mash-up in 2012, causing people to ask — Is this real?
From Washington Post ● Jun. 14, 2019
“And I’m telling you now, we’ve had a narrow escape. You didn’t hear him going on about his gormless brother — we’d have been teaching Grawp how to tie his shoelaces if we’d stayed.”
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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.
