The 3,274 occurrences of blockhead

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~   ~   ~   Sentence 5,027   ~   ~   ~

No, Sir, I called the fellow a blockhead[1243] at first, and I will call him a blockhead still.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,321   ~   ~   ~

'The boasted liberty we talk of,' he writes, 'is but a mean reward for the long servitude, the many heartaches and terrors to which our childhood is exposed in going through a grammar school.... No one who has gone through what they call a great school but must remember to have seen children of excellent and ingenuous natures (as has afterwards appeared in their manhood); I say no man has passed through this way of education but must have seen an ingenuous creature expiring with shame, with pale looks, beseeching sorrow and silent tears, throw up its honest eyes and kneel or its tender kneeds to an inexorable blockhead to be forgiven the false quantity of a word in making a Latin verse.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,748   ~   ~   ~

Bramston, in his _Man of Taste_, has the same thought: 'Sure, of all blockheads, scholars are the worst.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,750   ~   ~   ~

Johnson's meaning, however, is, that a scholar who is a blockhead must be the worst of all blockheads, because he is without excusc.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,751   ~   ~   ~

But Bramston, in the assumed character of an ignorant coxcomb, maintains that _all_ scholars are blockheads on account of their scholarship.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,826   ~   ~   ~

Johnson in his _London_, in describing 'the blockhead's insults,' while he mentions 'the tattered cloak,' passes over the ript shoe.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,028   ~   ~   ~

[447] 'There is nothing to tell, dearest lady, but that he was insolent and I beat him, and that he was a blockhead and told of it, which I should never have done....

~   ~   ~   Sentence 13,343   ~   ~   ~

[1243] See _post_, April 6, 1772, where Johnson called Fielding a blockhead.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,129   ~   ~   ~

ho!' said the Squire; 'I see very well who has been here; but as for you, a pretty set of blockheads you must be to sit here and let the Master Thief steal the horses from between your legs.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 734   ~   ~   ~

--Clara's father, anxious to get her off his hands as soon as possible, betrothed her to a rich young shopkeeper, a great blockhead, one of the so-called 'refined' sort.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,163   ~   ~   ~

It _were_ strange, very strange indeed, if persons combining with superior station a great mental superiority, should be content, while claiming the deference of the subordinate part of the community around them, that this high distinction should go for nothing in that claim, and that the required respect should be paid only in reverence of the number of their acres, the size of their houses, the elegance of their equipage and domestic arrangements, and perhaps some official capacity, in which many a notorious blockhead has strutted and blustered.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 5,557   ~   ~   ~

how many times have I regretted having married such a blockhead as that.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 132   ~   ~   ~

But when we come to build, we find that the blockheads who invented this style, or no-style, have got at the cheapest way of supplying the first imperative demands of the people for whom they build,--namely, to be walled in and roofed weather-tight, and with a decent neatness, but without much care that the house should be solid and enduring,--for it cannot well be so flimsy as not to outlast the owner's needs.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 171   ~   ~   ~

“Clumsy blockhead!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,116   ~   ~   ~

They are a pack of ignorant blockheads; you are suffering from the lungs.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,348   ~   ~   ~

Fielding being mentioned, Johnson exclaimed, 'he was a blockhead[513];' and upon my expressing my astonishment at so strange an assertion, he said, 'What I mean by his being a blockhead is that he was a barren rascal.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,367   ~   ~   ~

The effect which it had upon Johnson was, to produce this pleasant observation to Mr. Seward, to whom he lent the book: 'This fellow must be a blockhead.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,727   ~   ~   ~

'He was a blockhead for his pains.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 6,332   ~   ~   ~

--'Blockhead, (said he,) I'll write.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 6,333   ~   ~   ~

I never heard the word _blockhead_ applied to a woman before, though I do not see why it should not, when there is evident occasion for it[1344].

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,312   ~   ~   ~

[513] Johnson had called Churchill 'a blockhead.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,315   ~   ~   ~

'I have remarked,' said Miss Reynolds, 'that his dislike of anyone seldom prompted him to say much more than that the fellow is a blockhead.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,317   ~   ~   ~

In like manner Goldsmith called Sterne a blockhead; for Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, i.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,318   ~   ~   ~

260) is, no doubt, right in saying that the author of _Tristram Shandy_ is aimed at in the following passage in _The Citizen of the World_ (Letter, 74):--'In England, if a bawdy blockhead thus breaks in on the community, he sets his whole fraternity in a roar; nor can he escape even though he should fly to nobility for shelter.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,104   ~   ~   ~

Why, blockhead, are you mad?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,973   ~   ~   ~

"Well, breathless blockhead!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,127   ~   ~   ~

"Blockhead!"

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,158   ~   ~   ~

Father and I parted the while he cursed me and I denounced him as a 'blockhead.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,489   ~   ~   ~

And as long as you artless blockheads do not understand that proper and successful hypocrisy is the primal Christian virtue, the practising of which belongs to the highest religious duties already taught by the Trinity, so long nothing will come of the Kingdom of God."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,581   ~   ~   ~

To the Hollander a dreamer is a blockhead and a dullard, and our broker, a little fellow with gray beard and little leering cunningly-stupid eyes, who thinks himself very smart because he knows bow to eke out a profit everywhere and thus to swell his bank account, always states with much satisfaction that he never knew what it was to dream.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 213   ~   ~   ~

This shewed both that a journal of his Tour upon the Continent was not wholly out of his contemplation, and that he uniformly adhered to that strange opinion, which his indolent disposition made him utter: 'No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money[53].'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 11,823   ~   ~   ~

For of mystery--'the wisdom of blockheads,' as Horace Walpole calls it (_Letters_, iii.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 12,610   ~   ~   ~

"Mr. Bettesworth," answered he, "I was in my youth acquainted with great lawyers, who knowing my disposition to satire advised me that if any scoundrel or blockhead whom I had lampooned should ask, _Are you the author of this paper_?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,754   ~   ~   ~

Says father, says he, "What a blockhead you be, Sam, that's your own fault, they were too far off; you hadn't ought to have fired so soon.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 327   ~   ~   ~

for once the traitorous blockheads have legislated wisely!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,741   ~   ~   ~

Another favourite Saying of theirs is, That Business was designed only for Knaves, and Study for Blockheads.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,963   ~   ~   ~

There were several Satyrs and Panegyricks handed about in Acrostick, by which Means some of the most arrant undisputed Blockheads about the Town began to entertain ambitious Thoughts, and to set up for polite Authors.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,088   ~   ~   ~

The Acrostick [4] was probably invented about the same time with the Anagram, tho' it is impossible to decide whether the Inventor of the one of the other [were [5]] the greater Blockhead.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 8,643   ~   ~   ~

It happens, I doubt not, more than once in a Year, that a Lad is chastised for a Blockhead, when it is good Apprehension that makes him incapable of knowing what his Teacher means: A brisk Imagination very often may suggest an Error, which a Lad could not have fallen into, if he had been as heavy in conjecturing as his Master in explaining: But there is no Mercy even towards a wrong Interpretation of his Meaning, the Sufferings of the Scholar's Body are to rectify the Mistakes of his Mind.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 8,646   ~   ~   ~

No one who has gone through what they call a great School, but must remember to have seen Children of excellent and ingenuous Natures, (as has afterwards appeared in their Manhood) I say no Man has passed through this way of Education, but must have seen an ingenuous Creature expiring with Shame, with pale Looks, beseeching Sorrow, and silent Tears, throw up its honest Eyes, and kneel on its tender Knees to an inexorable Blockhead, to be forgiven the false Quantity of a Word in making a Latin Verse; The Child is punished, and the next Day he commits a like Crime, and so a third with the same Consequence.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,071   ~   ~   ~

The dying Man had still so much the Frailty of an Author in him, as to be cut to the Heart with these Consolations; and without answering the good Man, asked his Friends about him (with a Peevishness that is natural to a sick Person) where they had picked up such a Blockhead?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 514   ~   ~   ~

And you, you blockhead, you come here and insult the man upon whose word the whole thing depends."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,749   ~   ~   ~

"How the coach rocks--those blockheads will end by upsetting it.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,941   ~   ~   ~

Only a blockhead would try to gain such an end in such a way.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 985   ~   ~   ~

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head, With his own tongue still edifies his ears, And always listening to himself appears.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,169   ~   ~   ~

4 The learn'd themselves we book-worms name, The blockhead is a slow-worm; The nymph whose tail is all on flame, Is aptly term'd a glow-worm: 5 The fops are painted butterflies, That flutter for a day; First from a worm they take their rise, And in a worm decay.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,138   ~   ~   ~

But he who hurts a harmless neighbour's peace, Insults fallen worth, or beauty in distress, Who loves a lie, lame slander helps about, Who writes a libel, or who copies out: 290 That fop, whose pride affects a patron's name, Yet, absent, wounds an author's honest fame: Who can your merit selfishly approve, And show the sense of it without the love; Who has the vanity to call you friend, Yet wants the honour, injured, to defend; Who tells whate'er you think, whate'er you say, And, if he lie not, must at least betray: Who to the dean, and silver bell[106] can swear, And sees at Canons what was never there; 300 Who reads, but--with a lust to misapply, Make satire a lampoon, and fiction, lie; A lash like mine no honest man shall dread, But all such babbling blockheads in his stead.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,005   ~   ~   ~

Thou, who since yesterday hast roll'd o'er all The busy, idle blockheads of the ball, Hast thou, O Sun!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 985   ~   ~   ~

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learnèd lumber in his head, With his own tongue still edifies his ears, And always listening to himself appears.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,169   ~   ~   ~

4 The learn'd themselves we book-worms name, The blockhead is a slow-worm; The nymph whose tail is all on flame, Is aptly term'd a glow-worm: 5 The fops are painted butterflies, That flutter for a day; First from a worm they take their rise, And in a worm decay.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,138   ~   ~   ~

But he who hurts a harmless neighbour's peace, Insults fallen worth, or beauty in distress, Who loves a lie, lame slander helps about, Who writes a libel, or who copies out: 290 That fop, whose pride affects a patron's name, Yet, absent, wounds an author's honest fame: Who can your merit selfishly approve, And show the sense of it without the love; Who has the vanity to call you friend, Yet wants the honour, injured, to defend; Who tells whate'er you think, whate'er you say, And, if he lie not, must at least betray: Who to the dean, and silver bell[106] can swear, And sees at Canons what was never there; 300 Who reads, but--with a lust to misapply, Make satire a lampoon, and fiction, lie; A lash like mine no honest man shall dread, But all such babbling blockheads in his stead.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,005   ~   ~   ~

Thou, who since yesterday hast roll'd o'er all The busy, idle blockheads of the ball, Hast thou, O Sun!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,032   ~   ~   ~

"The learned man replied, 'Blockhead, as you are, why then do you say to me what you are now saying?'"

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,243   ~   ~   ~

The little Irish blockhead started from his form, and, throwing his grammar on the floor, leaped up higher than he or any boy in the school had ever been seen to leap before, and, clapping his hands, he exclaimed, "A letter from my mother!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,294   ~   ~   ~

He never more complained unjustly that Dominick broke Priscian's head, seldom called him Irish plockit, and once would have flogged a Welsh boy for taking up this cast-off expression of the master's, but the Irish blockhead begged the culprit off.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,045   ~   ~   ~

What a parcel of blockheads you all are!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 5,375   ~   ~   ~

I once caught myself saying of myself, "that careless blockhead has forgotten my nightcap."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 6,164   ~   ~   ~

"That blockhead of a groom is but just come to town; he does not yet know how to drive away a dun--but he'll learn.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 783   ~   ~   ~

Stupid blockheads!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,458   ~   ~   ~

Belinda declined this invitation, and Mrs. Freke strode away to the window to conceal her mortification, threw up the sash, and called out to her groom, "Walk those horses about, blockhead!"

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,550   ~   ~   ~

She rushed past her, hurried down stairs, and called out, "Bid my blockhead bring my unicorn."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,551   ~   ~   ~

She, her unicorn, and her blockhead, were out of sight in a few minutes.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,048   ~   ~   ~

"If Clarence Hervey," cried she, "were not the most honourable of blockheads, he might be the most happy of men.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 338   ~   ~   ~

Didst thou ever in thy life behold her without feelings unusual, throbs, doubts, desires, and fears; wild, incoherent, yet deriving ecstasy from that divinity which irradiates her form and beams on every object around her?--Do!--Think me a poor, raving, lovesick blockhead!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 474   ~   ~   ~

The servants are a parcel of busy blockheads!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,027   ~   ~   ~

Let speculative blockheads brew metaphysical nectar, make a hash of axioms, problems, corollaries and demonstrations, and feed on ideas and fatten.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,800   ~   ~   ~

I jumped headlong down a declivity, because I knew I was a good swimmer, into a lake; but, like a blockhead, never perceived that I should get stunned by the shelving of the rock, and consequently drowned.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,835   ~   ~   ~

I sincerely think there is not so foolish a fellow in the three kingdoms, as the noble blockhead to whom I have the honour to be related, Lord Evelyn: and, while I have tickled my fancy with the recollection of my own high descent, curse me if I have not blushed to acknowledge him, who is the head and representative of the race, as my kinsman!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 5,682   ~   ~   ~

I frequently dine with him on what he calls his open day; he being overwhelmed with business, as blockheads usually are; and I do not fail to insinuate the relationship in which, if care be not taken, he may hereafter chance to stand to a gardener's son.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 6,074   ~   ~   ~

They are brought to think thus lightly of chastity: but, should you or any one of the gallant phalanx attempt to make Anna St. Ives so think, she would presently cry buzz to the dull blockhead, and give him his eternal dismission.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 8,076   ~   ~   ~

There is no merit in imposing upon stupidity so gross as that of this supercilious blockhead.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,768   ~   ~   ~

Blockheads with reason men of sense abhor; But fool 'gainst fool, is barbarous civil war.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,787   ~   ~   ~

You might have held the pretty head aside, Peep'd in your fans, been serious thus, and cried-- 'The play may pass--but that strange creature, Shore, I can't--indeed now--I so hate a whore--' Just as a blockhead rubs his thoughtless skull, And thanks his stars he was not born a fool; So from a sister sinner you shall hear, 'How strangely you expose yourself, my dear!'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,179   ~   ~   ~

20 Benlowes,[349] propitious still to blockheads, bows; And Shadwell nods the poppy[350] on his brows.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,248   ~   ~   ~

Blockheads with reason wicked wits abhor, But fool with fool is barbarous civil war.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,306   ~   ~   ~

like a rolling stone, Thy giddy dulness still shall lumber on, Safe in its heaviness, shall never stray, But lick up every blockhead in the way.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,359   ~   ~   ~

In the former edition-- Too safe in inborn heaviness to stray, And lick up every blockhead in the way.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,425   ~   ~   ~

100 There march'd the bard and blockhead, side by side, Who rhymed for hire, and patronised for pride.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,658   ~   ~   ~

It will be found a true observation, though somewhat surprising, that when any scandal is vented against a man of the highest distinction and character, either in the state or in literature, the public in general afford it a most quiet reception; and the larger part accept it as favourably as if it were some kindness done to themselves: whereas, if a known scoundrel or blockhead but chance to be touched upon, a whole legion is up in arms, and it becomes the common cause of all scribblers, booksellers, and printers whatsoever.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,945   ~   ~   ~

[481]--Some great poets are positive blockheads.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 835   ~   ~   ~

The first care I always take is of a boy's morals; I had rather he should be a blockhead than an atheist or a presbyterian.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,236   ~   ~   ~

The host, who well knew Mr Pounce and Lady Booby's livery, was not a little surprized at this change of the scene; nor was his confusion much helped by his wife, who was now just risen, and, having heard from him the account of what had passed, comforted him with a decent number of fools and blockheads; asked him why he did not consult her, and told him he would never leave following the nonsensical dictates of his own numskull till she and her family were ruined.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 963   ~   ~   ~

Mrs Tow-wouse delivered herself in the following words: "Sure never was such a fool as my husband; would any other person living have left a man in the custody of such a drunken drowsy blockhead as Tom Suckbribe?"

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,781   ~   ~   ~

Why, I'll give one, you blockhead, with an S. _"'Si licet, ut fulvum spectatur in ignibus haurum.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 328   ~   ~   ~

"Now, what have you got?-- You great obstinate blockhead, You log of the village!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,386   ~   ~   ~

Oh, you blockhead!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 540   ~   ~   ~

But if you blab, you are undone: Consider what a risk you run: You lose your credit all at once; The town will mark you for a dunce; The vilest doggrel Grub Street sends Will pass for yours with foes and friends; And you must bear the whole disgrace, Till some fresh blockhead takes your place.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,513   ~   ~   ~

But if you blab, you are undone: Consider what a risk you run: You lose your credit all at once; The town will mark you for a dunce; The vilest doggrel Grub Street sends Will pass for yours with foes and friends; And you must bear the whole disgrace, Till some fresh blockhead takes your place.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 612   ~   ~   ~

(he had caught his father's expletive) "that blockhead has put the tent on the wrong side of the lake, after all.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 617   ~   ~   ~

"And why did you not cut the boughs, blockhead?"

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,091   ~   ~   ~

I thought that you told me never to speak of--" "Blockhead!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 612   ~   ~   ~

(he had caught his father's expletive) "that blockhead has put the tent on the wrong side of the lake, after all.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 617   ~   ~   ~

"And why did you not cut the boughs, blockhead?"

~   ~   ~   Sentence 8,569   ~   ~   ~

I thought that you told me never to speak of--" "Blockhead!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 327   ~   ~   ~

"Besides, I want no partner in the little that one can screw out of this blockhead."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,292   ~   ~   ~

"Besides, I want no partner in the little that one can screw out of this blockhead."

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,027   ~   ~   ~

But, to speak my whole meaning at once, to be scrupulously attentive to the measure and harmony of our periods, without a proper regard to our sentiments, is absolute madness:--and, on the other hand, to speak sensibly and judiciously, without attending to the arrangement of our words, and the regularity of our periods, is (at the best) to speak very awkwardly; but it is such a kind of awkwardness that those who are guilty of it, may not only escape the title of blockheads, but pass for men of good-sense and understanding;--a character which those speakers who are contented with it, are heartily welcome to enjoy!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 591   ~   ~   ~

The following singular passage, the style of which suggests an imitation of Sterne, is the acme of unconscious self-satire:-- You are infinitely unjust to Blockheads, as they are called.

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