dunce

(dŭns)

A stupid person; a dolt.

[After John Duns Scotuswhose writings and philosophy were ridiculed in the 16th century.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

dunce

(dʌns)

a person who is stupid or slow to learn

[C16: from Dunses or Dunsmen, term of ridicule applied to the followers of John Duns Scotus, especially by 16th-century humanists]

ˈdunceˌlike adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

dunce

(dʌns)

n.

a dull-witted, stupid, or ignorant person.

[1520–30; after John Duns Scotus, whose writings were attacked by the humanists as foolish]

dun′ci•cal, dunc′ish, adj.

dunc′ish•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

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

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

dolt, dullard, pillock, poor fish, pudden-head, pudding head, stupe, stupid, stupid person - a person who is not very bright; "The economy, stupid!"

dunce

noun simpleton, moron, duffer (informal), bonehead (slang), loon (informal), goose (informal), ass, donkey, oaf, dullard, dimwit (informal), ignoramus, nitwit (informal), dolt, blockhead, halfwit, nincompoop, fathead (informal), dunderhead, lamebrain (informal), thickhead, numbskull or numskull He was a dunce at mathematics.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

dunce

noun

A mentally dull person:

blockhead, chump, clod, dolt, dullard, dummkopf, dummy, numskull, thickhead.

Slang: dimwit, dumbbell, dumbo.

Translations

غَبي

hlupákšpatný žák

fæumulius

BlinseBlödmann Dummkopf

cancre

nehézfejű

tossi

tonto

grūtgalvisstulbenis

narr

lajdákzlý žiak

aptalbudala kimse

傻瓜蠢材

dunce

[dʌns] N (Scol) → zopenco/a m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

dunce

[ˈdʌns] n (= stupid person) → âne m, cancre m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

dunce

n (Sch) → langsamer Lerner or Schüler; (= stupid person) → Dummkopf m; to be a dunce at maths → eine Niete or schlecht in Mathe sein (inf); the dunce of the class → das Schlusslicht der Klasse; dunce’s cap spitzer Papierhut, der früher zur Strafe dem schlechtesten Schüler aufgesetzt wurde

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

dunce

[dʌns] n (Scol) → asino/a, somaro/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

dunce

(dans) noun

a person who is slow at learning or stupid. I was an absolute dunce at school.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

"Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce, "Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet.

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The last of the crew needs especial remark, Though he looked an incredible dunce: He had just one idea--but, that one being "Snark," The good Bellman engaged him at once.

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Displayed on hooks upon the wall in all their terrors, were the cane and ruler; and near them, on a small shelf of its own, the dunce's cap, made of old newspapers and decorated with glaring wafers of the largest size.

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George was a great dunce, but no matter for that; all men do not thrive in the world according to their learning.

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'And he wants me to sink into a dunce, meantime,' answered Catherine.

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Once upon a time there lived an old couple who had three sons; the two elder were clever, but the third was a regular dunce. The clever sons were very fond of their mother, gave her good clothes, and always spoke pleasantly to her; but the youngest was always getting in her way, and she had no patience with him.

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Anything and everything would enter into them, for my father would say that I was an utter dunce at the French language; that the head mistress of my school was a stupid, common sort of women who cared nothing for morals; that he (my father) had not yet succeeded in obtaining another post; that Lamonde's "Grammar" was a wretched book--even a worse one than Zapolski's; that a great deal of money had been squandered upon me; that it was clear that I was wasting my time in repeating dialogues and vocabularies; that I alone was at fault, and that I must answer for everything.

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Phillips says I'm the worst dunce he ever saw at it.

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He afterwards said he was a dunce at college and "was stopped of his degree for dulness and insufficiency." But although at first the examiners refused to pass him, he was later, for some reason, given a special degree, granted by favor rather than gained by desert "in a manner little to his credit," says bitter Swift.

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Passepartout was by no means one of those pert dunces depicted by Moliere with a bold gaze and a nose held high in the air; he was an honest fellow, with a pleasant face, lips a trifle protruding, soft-mannered and serviceable, with a good round head, such as one likes to see on the shoulders of a friend.

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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?"

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Hilbery off among the dunces; on the contrary, she had a way of seeming the wisest person in the room.

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