half-wit

[ half-wit, hahf- ]

noun

1. a person who is feeble-minded.
2. a person who is foolish or senseless; dunderhead.

   Synonyms: dimwit, dummy, dope, nitwit, fool, dolt, blockhead

Word History and Origins

Origin of half-wit¹

First recorded in 1670–80

Example Sentences

Ken, Rome, and Shiv suspect that if they put their three half-wits together, they'd figure out how to keep Daddy's multibillion-dollar conglomerate afloat.

From Salon

"Think of the Goof as a composite of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, a half-wit, a shiftless, good-natured colored boy, and a hick," Babbitt told his staff in 1934.

From Salon

Health and Human Services is just one Trump cabinet department that has been led by not one, but two half-wit hacks and undercut by the White House from Day One.

From Salon

With a broad, cherubic face, dimpled chin, unruly hair and a charismatic presence described as “gnomelike,” Mr. Pollard excelled at playing imps, half-wits and outright weirdos.

From Washington Post

Morgan’s audacity lay in his restraint: He wanted to see the Windsors steadily and to see them whole, as neither pampered half-wits nor infallible deities.

From New York Times