[f. BLOCK sb. + HEAD.]
† 1. A wooden head, a wooden block for hats or wigs; hence, a head with no more intelligence in it than one of these, a blockish head. Obs. (This would now be written block head or block-head.)
1549. [implied in BLOCKHEADED].
1589. Hay any Work, B. The ofspringes of your owne blockheads.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. iii. 31. Your wit … ’tis strongly wadg’d vp in a blockehead.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 217. To maintain their own Hypotheses, Broke one another’s Blockheads, and the Peace.
1698. Vanbrugh, Prov. Wife, V. v. How long would my blockhead have been a-producing this!
2. Hence, One whose head is blockish or ‘wooden’; an utterly stupid fellow.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. xi. 14. A blockheade that hathe loste the judgemente of nature.
1593. Nashe, Christs T., 69 b. Bee he the veriest block-head vnder heauen.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xxiv. 59. Block-heads and dull-pated Asses.
1712. Budgell, Spect., No. 307, ¶ 12. Being dismissed as an hopeless Block-head.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 222. He might think me a blockhead, and refuse to take me.
B. adj. Blockheaded, stupid. Obs.
1606. in Bullen, O. Pl. (1884), III. 32. The block-head heart of a woman.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., IV. 239. Oh! the Block-head World we live in!
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), IV. 2. All such Blockhead fools.
Hence Blockheadess. nonce-wd. [see -ESS.] A female blockhead.
1827. Lady Morgan, O’Briens & O’Flahertys, IV. 361. All the blockheads and blockheadesses think themselves printable.
