knucklehead
pronunciation
How to pronounce knucklehead in British English:
UK [ˈnʌklhed]
How to pronounce knucklehead in American English:
US ['nʌklhed]
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- Noun:
- these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence
Word Origin
- knucklehead (n.)
- "stupid person," 1890, American English, from knuckle (n.) + head (n.). "That infernal knuckle-head at the camp ought to have reported before now," he thought to himself, as he smoked. [Charles H. Shinn, "The Quicksands of Toro," in "Belford's Magazine," vol. V, June-November 1890, New York] From 1869 as the name of a part in a type of mechanical coupling device. Popularized in the "stupid person" sense from 1942, from character R.F. Knucklehead, star of "Don't" posters hung up at U.S. Army Air Force training fields. Everything Knucklehead does is wrong and ends in disaster. He endures one spectacular crash after another so that the students at the Gulf Coast Air Force Training Center may profit by his mistakes, and it looks now as if there will be no let-up in his agony. ["Life," May 25, 1942]
Example
- 1. Knucklehead walks into a bank with a telephone !
- 2. Knucklehead walks into a bank with a telephone ......
- 3. Knucklehead left us his autograph .
- 4. On her honeymoon she realized she had married a knucklehead .
- 5. On her honeymoon she realize she have married a knucklehead .