dimwit

noun

dim·​wit ˈdim-ˌwit How to pronounce dimwit (audio)
: a stupid or mentally slow person

Examples of dimwit in a Sentence

you're a dimwit if you think I'll sell my house for that price
Recent Examples on the Web With LaPierre’s encouragement and assistance, tens of thousands of dimwits, drunks, rage-a-holics, paranoids, domestic abusers and everyday incompetents have been armed and sent into America’s streets, ballparks, schools, churches and bars. Francis Wilkinson, The Mercury News, 27 Feb. 2024 That might be a stretch, but DiCaprio is terrific as the gullible dimwit who falls under his uncle’s spell and helps plot the murders of his Osage wife’s family. Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan. 2024 His male protagonists continue to fail their significant others even when given multiple chances to reverse that pattern: a paradigm even more fraught if the protagonist is a white dimwit and his wife a long-suffering Osage. Jim Shepard, New York Times, 29 Nov. 2023 Scarcely a week into the tenure of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and his view of American voters and the press as dimwits to be gulled is becoming clearer with every day. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2023 Even the wisest, most judicious women can become dimwits in their love affairs. Cat Zhang, Washington Post, 1 Sep. 2023 Shinola — which took its name from a defunct blue-collar shoe polish company known for the colloquial expression for a dimwit, not a trendsetter luxury — gets to associate its watches, or rather, timepieces, with a high-speed, high-life lifestyle. Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, 2 June 2023 Into this framework, Bryon and Melia fit in a few constructed farcical setpieces — the quickest and funniest of which sees Yas posing as Dom’s steady girlfriend for a peacemaking meeting with his ex Gia (Karene Peter) and her dimwit new beau Eric (deadpan scene-stealer Benjamin Sarpong-Broni). Guy Lodge, Variety, 16 Mar. 2023 The forty-third president set the stage for a world-historical dimwit to run the nation into the ground. Bruce Bartlett, The New Republic, 23 Nov. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dimwit.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1921, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of dimwit was in 1921

Dictionary Entries Near dimwit

Cite this Entry

“Dimwit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dimwit. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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