different between duffer vs dunderhead

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?d?f?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d?f?/
• Rhymes: -?f?(?)

Adjective

duffer

1. comparative form of duff: more duff

Noun

duffer (plural duffers)

1. (informal) An incompetent or clumsy person.
2. (sports) A player having little skill, especially a golfer who duffs.
3. (archaic) A pedlar or hawker, especially one selling cheap or substandard goods.
4. (archaic) Cheap or substandard goods sold by a duffer.
5. A cow that does not produce milk.
   • 1908, Proceedings of the Agricultural Society of Trinidad and Tobago, Volume 8, page 116,

     We have some good cows in this State, but, unfortunately, we have too many duffer cows that are not only being fed and milked at a loss hut are eating up a portion of the profit of the good cow which is being milked alongside them.

   • 1934, Victorian Department of Agriculture, Journal of Agriculture, Volume 32, page 293,

     The truth is that cattlemen love a typical cow for her beauty and symmetry of form ; but every herd-testing dairyman knows that an ugly animal may be a good producer, while many a beautiful cow is a duffer.

6. (Australia, dated) A cattle thief or thief of other livestock; one who alters the brands of cattle.
   • 2011, Clancy Tucker, Gunnedah Hero, unnumbered page,

     The cattle duffer?s escape would have been impeded by those young ones. Calves can be unruly unless you move them carefully in the company of their mothers.
7. A racing pigeon that does not perform well.
8. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Discophora.

Synonyms

• (incompetent person): see Thesaurus:unskilled person
• (livestock thief): see Thesaurus:rustler

Translations

Anagrams

• ruffed

English

Etymology

dunder +? head

Noun

dunderhead (plural dunderheads)

1. (somewhat dated) A stupid person; a dunce.
   • 1883, Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, ch. 6:

     You're the stupidest dunderhead I ever saw or ever heard of, so help me Moses!

   • 1915, Basil King, The Side Of The Angels, ch. 3:

     Poor old fellow's a dunderhead. That's where it is in a nutshell. Never could make a living. . . . Nice old chap as ever lived. Only impractical, dreamy. Gentle as a sheep—and no more capable of running that big, expensive plant than a motherly old ewe.

   • 2004 May 23, Maureen Dowd, "Bay of Goats," New York Times (retrieved 29 Nov 2017):

     Cheney & Company swooned over Mr. Chalabi because he was telling them what they wanted to hear. . . . A half-dozen dunderheads who thought they knew everything assumed they could control Mr. Chalabi and use him as the instrument of their utopian fantasies.

Alternative forms

• dinderhead (Southwestern England)

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:fool

Derived terms

• dunderheaded