dunderhead
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- dunderheaded adjective
- dunderheadedness noun
Etymology
Origin of dunderhead
1615–25; apparently < Dutch dunder ( kop ) numbskull ( dunder thunder + kop head) + head
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.
Adolf Hitler was described by a prominent magazine editor in 1930 as a "big mouth," a "half-insane rascal," a "pathetic dunderhead" and a "nowhere fool."
From Salon • Jun. 28, 2022
Paula Murrihy’s Ruggiero is the easily swayed dunderhead who is entrapped by Alcina.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 5, 2021
What if the town recognized what it had — in talent, in appealing central stars and in organizational brains — before the kind of mega-success that would convert any dunderhead?
From Washington Post • May 24, 2015
If you were lucky enough to fall in with a group like that, and if you weren't a a complete dunderhead that reflexively resisted anything new, your horizons expanded.
From Salon • Jul. 19, 2010
Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn’t a dunderhead.
From "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" 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.
