English Dictionary

DUNCE

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dunce mean? 

DUNCE (noun)
  The noun DUNCE has 1 sense:

1. a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligenceplay

  Familiarity information: DUNCE used as a noun is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


DUNCE (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

blockhead; bonehead; dumbass; dunce; dunderhead; fuckhead; hammerhead; knucklehead; loggerhead; lunkhead; muttonhead; numskull; shithead

Hypernyms ("dunce" is a kind of...):

dolt; dullard; pillock; poor fish; pudden-head; pudding head; stupe; stupid; stupid person (a person who is not very bright)

Derivation:

duncical; duncish ((used informally) stupid)


 Context examples 


In a school carried on by sheer cruelty, whether it is presided over by a dunce or not, there is not likely to be much learnt.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I introduced Didymus and Eustathius to Homer, and prevailed on him to treat them better than perhaps they deserved, for he soon found they wanted a genius to enter into the spirit of a poet. But Aristotle was out of all patience with the account I gave him of Scotus and Ramus, as I presented them to him; and he asked them, whether the rest of the tribe were as great dunces as themselves?

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Clothes maketh the man." (English proverb)

"The rainbow is a sign from Him who is in all things." (Native American proverb, Hopi)

"The envious was created only to be infuriated." (Arabic proverb)

"Learned young is done old." (Dutch proverb)



ALSO IN ENGLISH DICTIONARY:


© 2000-2023 AudioEnglish.org | AudioEnglish® is a Registered Trademark | Terms of use and privacy policy
Contact