Etymology
Origin of half-wit
First recorded in 1670–80
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 his withering 1950 essay “The Simple Art of Murder,” Raymond Chandler wrote that the solution to Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” was so far-fetched that “only a half-wit could guess it.”
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 9, 2017
Back to playing a man-child very much in the mold of his “Hangover” character, which is to say someone who is a quarter of the way to being a half-wit.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 29, 2016
Richard Armstrong conducted with incisive intelligence, the orchestra was phenomenal and the lineup of creepy, half-wit suitors, led by Andrew Shore, Christopher Turner and Ryland Davies, completed a mesmerising night.
From The Guardian • Sep. 25, 2010
It is. a medieval tale, highly costumed �a Princess of Burgundy, her cruel father, the half-wit son of the French King.
From Time Magazine Archive
Father spoke slowly, as if to a half-wit, “Elections are good, and Christianity is good. Both are good.”
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
