dunce

«dunce» in Mova's school dictionary: slow to learn or thought to be stupid, especially a pupil — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a dunce, dunces)

meaning for a pupil

1) (old-fashioned, unkind) A person who is slow to learn or thought to be stupid, especially a pupil. tree →

2) In «dunce's cap» (dunce cap): a tall paper cone hat that pupils in old schools were made to wear as a punishment. tree →

sense in the lessons

In old school stories a pupil who got answers wrong was made to sit in the corner in a dunce's cap. Today this is seen as cruel; everyone learns at a different speed, and calling someone a dunce is unkind. Fun fact: the word comes from John Duns Scotus, a clever medieval thinker whose followers were later mocked as «Dunsmen».

examples

• In the old school, the dunce had to sit in the corner. tree →
• The teacher made him wear a dunce's cap. tree →
• Calling someone a dunce is unkind. tree →
• Toad acted like a dunce, but he thought he was clever. tree →
• «I'm such a dunce at maths!» she laughed – but she was wrong. tree →
• Today no teacher uses a dunce's cap. tree →
• Once upon a time there lived an old couple who had three sons; the two elder were clever, but the third was a regular dunce. tree →

note

Countable. An insult; avoid using it about people. Rhymes with «once».

In the corpora

• Do you take me for a dunce?» (dunce = a stupid pupil).

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «dunce» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.