blockhead
(ˈblɒkhɛd)
[f. block n. + head.]
† 1. A wooden head, a wooden block for hats or wigs; hence, a head with no more intelligence in it than one of these, a blockish head. Obs. (This would now be written block head or block-head.)
| 1549 [implied in blockheaded]. 1589 Hay any Work B, The ofspringes of your owne blockheads. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. iii. 31 Your wit..'tis strongly wadg'd vp in a blocke⁓head. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 217 To maintain their own Hypotheses, Broke one another's Blockheads, and the Peace. 1698 Vanbrugh Prov. Wife v. v, How long would my blockhead have been a-producing this! |
2. Hence, One whose head is blockish or ‘wooden’; an utterly stupid fellow.
| 1549 Coverdale Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. xi. 14 A blockheade that hathe loste the judgemente of nature. 1593 Nashe Christs T. 69 b, Bee he the veriest block-head vnder heauen. 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. xxiv. 59 Block-heads and dull-pated Asses. 1712 Budgell Spect. No. 307 ¶12 Being dismissed as an hopeless Block-head. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 222 He might think me a blockhead, and refuse to take me. |
† B. adj. Blockheaded, stupid. Obs.
| 1606 in Bullen O. Pl. (1884) III. 32 The block-head heart of a woman. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-cr. iv. 239 Oh! the Block-head World we live in! 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) IV. 2 All such Blockhead fools. |
Hence ˈblockheadess. nonce-wd. [see -ess.] A female blockhead.
| 1827 Lady Morgan O'Briens & O'Fl. IV. 361 All the blockheads and blockheadesses think themselves printable. |