'Dunce' definitions:
Definition of 'Dunce'
From: GCIDE
- Dunce \Dunce\, n. [From Joannes Duns Scotus, a schoolman called the Subtle Doctor, who died in 1308. Originally in the phrase "a Duns man". See Note below.] One backward in book learning; a child or other person dull or weak in intellect; a dullard; a dolt. [1913 Webster]
- I never knew this town without dunces of figure. --Swift. [1913 Webster]
- Note: The schoolmen were often called, after their great leader Duns Scotus, Dunsmen or Duncemen. In the revival of learning they were violently opposed to classical studies; hence, the name of Dunce was applied with scorn and contempt to an opposer of learning, or to one slow at learning, a dullard. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'dunce'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- block,
- blockhead,
- Boeotian,
- bonehead,
- boob,
- booby,
- bufflehead,
- cabbagehead,
- chowderhead,
- chucklehead,
- chump,
- clod,
- clodpate,
- clodpoll,
- cluck,
- dabbler,
- dilettante,
- dimwit,
- dodo,
- dolt,
- dolthead,
- donkey,
- dope,
- drip,
- duffer,
- dullard,
- dullhead,
- dumb,
- dumb cluck,
- dumbbell,
- dummy,
- fool,
- gowk,
- greenhorn,
- greeny,
- ignoramus,
- illiterate,
- illiterati,
- jobbernowl,
- know-nothing,
- lackwit,
- lamebrain,
- lightweight,
- looby,
- loon,
- lowbrow,
- middlebrow,
- niais,
- nincompoop,
- ninny,
- ninnyhammer,
- nitwit,
- no scholar,
- noddy,
- puddinghead,
- put,
- stupid,
- tenderfoot,
- thickwit,
- unintelligentsia,
- witling