mooncalf
Americannoun
plural
mooncalves-
a congenitally grossly deformed and mentally defective person.
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a foolish person.
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a person who spends time idly daydreaming.
noun
-
a born fool; dolt
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a person who idles time away
-
obsolete a freak or monster
Etymology
Origin of mooncalf
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The long-term effects of that mooncalf renaissance are impossible to gauge from here.
From Salon • Jun. 6, 2021
Prince Bumpo, the heir to the throne, is a mooncalf who mistakes fairy tales for real life, speaks in Elizabethan periphrasis and murmurs to himself: “If only I were a white prince!”
From New York Times • Sep. 9, 2020
By 1752, Dr. Johnson had begun to mock such reaching and its mooncalf hyperbole.
From The New Yorker • Mar. 3, 2016
But Doinel, the eternal mooncalf, is lured away by a Japanese girl.
From Time Magazine Archive
He stared off into space with a dumb mooncalf look on his face that made you want to slap him.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.