as in dumb
not having or showing an ability to absorb ideas readily
far from being oafish, the professional wrestler was in fact a college graduate
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Recent Examples of oafish
But there’s value to the subtle, occasional mention of an appropriate insider name, a gesture that’s more like a secret handshake than the work of an oafish show-off.
—
Mark Ellwood, Robb Report, 25 Nov. 2025
Amin, who ruled Uganda for eight years, is usually remembered as a cartoon villain, with an oafish sense of humor that only made his cruelty more unsettling.
—Kelefa Sanneh, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
Mark Ellwood, Robb Report, 25 Nov. 2025
Amin, who ruled Uganda for eight years, is usually remembered as a cartoon villain, with an oafish sense of humor that only made his cruelty more unsettling.
—Kelefa Sanneh, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for oafish
Adjective
-
These apps often default to a faster, dumber model.—
Matt Shumer,
Fortune,
11 Feb. 2026
-
Who, other than dumb people like me, are gonna recruit high school kids?—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
10 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
But maybe Johnson isn’t stupid.—
Mark Z. Barabak,
Mercury News,
18 Feb. 2026
-
Even in contemporary political and intellectual discourse, there remains an attachment to a particular stupid southern conservatism, the ideocratic confederacy.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
17 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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That builds on similar trends throughout 2025, when the industry buoyed an otherwise slow labor market, as the nation’s hospitals, clinics and nursing homes kept hiring even as many employers pulled back.—
Abha Bhattarai,
Washington Post,
14 Feb. 2026
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Any type of realism was [limited to] very short clips, everything was very slow, bad textures, no skin textures, lacking detail.—
Arjun Kharpal,
CNBC,
14 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
That simple sentiment distills what being a Louisianan is about.—
Carlie Procell,
USA Today,
18 Feb. 2026
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No doubt history would be very different if a citizen’s duty was simple obeyance.—
DP Opinion,
Denver Post,
18 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Mathews vividly remembers riding in one of her father’s water trucks through thick smoke as black as the night to help family members and other ranchers save their homes.—
Michael Collins,
USA Today,
14 Feb. 2026
-
Now, a team of researchers from the Polish Academy of Sciences has shown that even a bare carbon fiber, no thicker than a human hair, can bend and straighten on command, without any direct wiring.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Oafish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/oafish. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.
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