a. [f. FAT a. + WIT + -ED2.] Of slow wit, dull, ‘thick-headed.’
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. ii. 2. Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of olde Sacke, and vnbuttoning thee after Supper, and sleeping vpon Benches in the afternoone, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truely, which thou wouldest truly know.
1797. J. Lawrence, in Monthly Mag. (1818), XLVI., 1 Oct., 215/1. Prejudice, in general acceptation, a fond leaning to the belief of something which is not true, and on that very account held by grave and pious, or fat-witted sophisters, to be highly contributory to truth and utility, has ever been esteemed as meriting apology, and even necessary to be cherished.
1803. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1859), I. 62/1. If they are endowed, professors become fat-witted, and never imagine that the arts and sciences are anything else but incomes.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1883), I. 374. These heavy-cheeked English lawyers, slow-paced and fat-witted as they must needs be.
