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.

Twin Peaks cop Andy and his daffy receptionist wife Lucy are cases in point; their witlessness is played for laughs but simultaneously curdles into something unsettling, as if they were robots trying to play humans.

From The Guardian • Jun. 5, 2017

But the rest of us are under no obligation to smile weakly at such witlessness.

From Slate • Jun. 5, 2017

Which is not to say cartoons must thrive on witlessness, as gifted artists ever since Picasso and Duchamp make plain.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 16, 2015

In them he declared what he called “a protective interest in the English language,” which, he warned, was falling prey to windiness, witlessness, ungrammaticality, obfuscation and other depredations.

From New York Times • Sep. 16, 2010

"I had no idea," said Isabel presently; and looked up at her in a manner that doubtless matched the apparent witlessness of this confession.

From The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 2 by James, Henry