schmo U.S. slang.
(ʃməʊ)
Also shmo(e).
[f. schmuck.]
An idiot, a fool.
| 1948 Life 15 Mar. 23/2 Schlump is a friendlier, more sympathetic term than ‘schmo’, which has completely replaced ‘jerk’. A schmo, of course, is a person who stands watching a machine make doughnuts, and 1) cannot understand the process, 2) cannot get up will power to leave. 1955 ‘H. Robbins’ Stone for Danny Fisher i. vii. 56 Let some other shmoe wet-nurse a bunch of kids. 1957 S. J. Perelman Road to Miltown 125 A couple of shmos like you and me, we can't even get up our rent, whereas them dukes and earls..are rolling in dough. 1970 D. Francis Rat Race ii. 27 ‘Who,’ he said crossly, ‘is going to give that schmo a thousand quid for breaking his ankle?’ 1979 ‘H. Howard’ Sealed Envelope xi. 159, I was feeling like a shmoe... Paul Ingram had outsmarted me. |