lunkhead

noun

lunk·​head ˈləŋk-ˌhed How to pronounce lunkhead (audio)
variants or lunk
plural lunkheads or lunks
: a stupid or dull-witted person : dolt
"Where I lived, in Central Square, Cambridge, you had the working class and the university life—you'd have to be a lunkhead not to be keenly aware of it," says [Ben] Affleck.Steven Daly
[Bruce] Willis played the lunk who ran a down-and-out detective agency that came to life when model Cybill Shepherd became his partner.Stephen Dubner
In the onscreen romance department, actress Shelley Fabares has seen her share of hunks and lunks.Cynthia Sanz and John Griffiths

Examples of lunkhead in a Sentence

don't let that lunkhead anywhere near your work tools
Recent Examples on the Web However, her lovable lunkhead of a servant, Kronk (Patrick Warburton), gives the emperor the wrong vial of poison and turns him into a llama. Devin Nealy, EW.com, 16 Oct. 2023 Their rowdy energy is so willfully disreputable, they must be made by a bunch of know-nothing lunkheads. Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 29 Dec. 2023 Except an elderly Russian gangster recognizes the fiftysomething comic as the young American lunkhead (American Vandal‘s Jimmy Tatro) who stole his precious pocket watch all those years ago. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 4 June 2023 For this week at the PGA championship, the same goes for every lunkhead who snapped a photo in the middle of a backswing, every 50-year-old who crowded out a kid in an autograph line, every scampering porta-potty seeker who incurred the wrath of an over-officious caddie. Eddie Pells, Star Tribune, 6 Aug. 2020 The character was not a hothead but a himbo, a Presidential lunkhead. Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 29 Oct. 2022 The walls are booklined: Charlie is no lunkhead but an avid reader. Joshua Rothkopf, EW.com, 21 Dec. 2021 The fun throughout, the payoff, is in seeing Beth yank the rug out from one misunderestimating lunkhead and authority figure after another. Tribune News Service, cleveland, 2 Nov. 2020

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

Word History

Etymology

probably alteration of lump + head

First Known Use

1851, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of lunkhead was in 1851

Dictionary Entries Near lunkhead

Cite this Entry

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

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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