| 释义 |
numskull|ˈnʌmskʌl|
Forms: α. 8–9 numbskull; numpscull, -skull. β. 8–9 numscull (8 -scul, -scal), 8– numskull (8 -skul).
[f. numb a. + skull n.]
1. A dull-witted or stupid person; a blockhead, thickhead, dolt.
α1724Swift Let. to Wood Wks. 1841 II. 50, I remember not to have known a greater numbskull than thou art. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. ii. i, You numbskulls! and so while..you are quarrelling for places the guests must be starved. 1800Sporting Mag. XVI. 284 I'm not so great a fool..as that great numpscull Jack! 1834M. Scott Tom Cringle xvi, Why will not the numbskulls confine their infernal dullness to them. 1839Landor Andrea of Hungary 84 I've swum two nights And days together upon Baian wine..; 'twould swamp that leaky nump-skull.
β1728Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. i. ii, Thou art a numscul I see already. 1756Gentl. Mag. XXVI. 490 If he's a fool, and like a numskul chuses To consort with those weedling jades, the Muses. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 130 Every modern numskull, who takes hold of a subject he knows nothing about. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset II. lxxiii. 295 He considered them to be numskulls, and little better than idiots.
attrib. and Comb.1814Hill Let. to Carlyle 9 May, Ever varying the scene with wit and mirth, while honest Peter must hold on in one numskull track to all eternity. 1828Southey Ep. to A. Cunningham, An honest fellow of the numskull race;..a very goose.
2. The head, pate, noddle, esp. that of a dull or stupid person.
1717Prior Alma i. 127 Or Toes, or Fingers, in this Case, Of Num-scull's Self shou'd take the Place. 1738Gentl. Mag. VIII. 197/2 Their Children..having at their Birth Numsculls, like those obtain'd by Art by their Parents. 1742Fielding J. Andrews iii. xii, The nonsensical dictates of his own numscull. a1818M. G. Lewis Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834) 37 He never could squeeze his great numskull into it. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy iii, Confound your numskull! I didn't say a word about ink. 1850T. A. Trollope Impress. Wand. xiii. 210 Tell them what you will, they shake their wise numskulls when you have done.
Hence ˈnumskullism, stupidity.
1806A. Seward Lett. (1811) VI. 268 His reminiscences familiarize us with the interior of the court of George the First and Second, and display, in full light, the numskullism of both those regal personages. |