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Definition of dunce cap
: a conical cap formerly used as a punishment for slow learners at school
— called also dunce's cap
Examples of dunce cap in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web If my students are willing to share their secrets in their writing and to invite me into their homes over Zoom, an occasional dunce cap won’t kill me.
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Anne Fadiman, Wired, "Screen Share: A College Teacher’s Zoom Journal," 17 June 2020 Xi’s father was purged, and Xi was sent to the countryside, forced to dig trenches and wear a metal dunce cap.
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Anna Fifield, Washington Post, "China’s Communist Party has one more reason to celebrate — a year longer in power than the U.S.S.R.," 29 Sep. 2019 Not all residents were on board with punishing the mayor with a sort of sartorial dunce cap, reported La Republica.
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Elizabeth Llorente, Fox News, "Mexican mayor paraded through town in women's clothes for failing to keep campaign promises," 3 Aug. 2019 The dunce caps and playground taunts briefly swiped the headlines from the other pressing NASCAR playoff hot topics, such as spoiler tape, encumbered finishes , driver twitter spats and lugnuts.
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USA TODAY, "Logano forced to watch practice as part of NASCAR punishment," 23 Sep. 2017 But only a fool with a fetish for dunce caps would pick against Bill and Brady in Week 1.
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Jim Derry, NOLA.com, "NFL Picks Week 1: Saints defy logic, win opener at Minnesota," 4 Sep. 2017
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dunce cap.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for dunce cap
The first known use of dunce cap was circa 1791
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