a. and sb. [ad. L. stupid-us, f. stup-ēre to be stunned or benumbed. Cf. F. stupide (Rabelais), Sp., Pg. estúpido, It. stupido.]
A. adj.
1. Having one’s faculties deadened or dulled; in a state of stupor, stupefied, stunned; esp. hyperbolically, stunned with surprise, grief, etc. Obs. exc. arch. (poet.)
Very common in Dryden.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 409. Is not your Father growne incapeable Of reasonable affayres? Is he not stupid With Age, and altring Rheumes? Can he speake? heare? Know man, from man?
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Stupid, dismaid, abashed, astonied, amazed, senceless.
1675. Machiavelli’s Prince, xix. Wks. (1883), 123. These remained … stupid and astonished.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, VII. 1104. Men, Boys, and Women stupid with Surprise, Where ere she passes, fix their wond’ring Eyes.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XVIII. 114. Down drop’d he stupid from the stunning wound.
1737. in H. T. Waghorn, Cricket Scores (1899), 19. The latter receiving … so smart a blow by the ball that he was knocked down and lay stupid for a long time.
1859. Tennyson, Geraint & Enid, 753. And Enid could not say one tender word, She felt so blunt and stupid at the heart.
† b. Belonging to or characterized by stupor or insensibility. Oös.
1607. Chapman, Bussy d’Ambois, V. 64. Reuiue those stupid thoughts, and sit not thus, Gathering the horrors of your seruants slaughter,… Into an idle fancie.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 781. His Eyes are settled in a stupid peace.
1702. Pope, Sappho, 128. No sigh to rise, no tear had pow’r to flow, Fix’d in a stupid lethargy of woe.
1818. Keats, Endymion, I. 678. My sweet dream Fell into nothing—into stupid sleep.
† c. Of a part of the body: Paralysed. Obs.
1638. A. Read, Chirurg., xi. 82. Touch the stupid parts [of a paralytic person] with quick nettles.
d. Path. ? Obs.
1822–9. Good, Study Med. (ed. 3), IV. 519. Cephalæa gravans. Stupid head-ache. Pain obtuse; with a sense of heaviness extending over the whole head.
† e. Emotionally or morally dull or insensible; apathetic, indifferent. Const. to [cf. F. stupide à].
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xxii. § 17. As for pleasure, wee haue likewise determined, that the minde oughte not to bee reduced to stupide, but to retayne pleasure.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 148. The Stoicks … patience … was … onely a stupid senselessnesse, and wretched carelessnesse.
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., II. vi. § 5. He is as stupid to these things [the beauties of nature] as the basest of Beasts.
1713. Guardian (1756), I. No. 19. 86. It was a cause of great sorrow and melancholy to me … to see a crowd in the habits of the gentry of England stupid to the noblest sentiments we have.
1758. S. Hayward, Serm., xvii. 530. Oh stupid creatures that are not raised with the descriptions of his person!
a. 1770. Jortin, Serm. (1787), II. x. 199. Vice begets the dread of punishment, unless it be constantly attended with unbelief, and with a stupid carelessness about futurity.
† 2. As the characteristic of inanimate things: Destitute of sensation, consciousness, thought or feeling. Obs.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 98. Tangible Parts in Bodies are Stupide things; And the Spirits doe (in effect) all.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, II. iii. III. 60. Yet if the Earth stand stupid and unmov’d, This needs must come to passe.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xxxiii. 251. And as for the Care of the Publique Good of the Universe ascrib’d to dead and stupid Bodies; wee shall only demand, why [etc.].
a. 1664. Kath. Philips, Poems (1667), 40, In Mem. of F. P., 14. Alas! in vain, in vain on thee I rave; There is no pity in the stupid Grave.
a. 1694. Tillotson, Serm. (1743). IX. 4110. The stone is stupid, and is not in the least conscious of any of those impressions, does not perceive what is done to it.
a. 1718. Prior, 2nd Hymn of Callimachus, 141. Euphrates … copious runs, but Muddy; And carries forward with his stupid Force Polluting Dirt.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., v. 74. Matter is incapable of acting, passive only, and stupid.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 190. Were it not for this [fire], the whole wou’d be one great stupid inanimate mass. But this active element is supposed to be every where.
3. Wanting in or slow of mental perception; lacking ordinary activity of mind; slow-witted, dull.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 B iij b. For the fyrste speake ouer lyghtly and to imprudently,… and the other are all togyther stupydes, sturdy, & lytygious.
1616. Bullokar, Eng. Expos., Stupid, blockish, without wit: dull.
1649. Milton, Tenure of Kings, 8. No man who knows ought, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were borne free. Ibid. (1667), P. L., XII. 116. O that men … should be so stupid grown While yet the Patriark liv’d, who scap’d the Flood, As to forsake the living God.
1692. Dryden, St. Euremont’s Ess., 290. But I esteem the Faith of a stupid Peasant, more than all the Lessons of Socrates.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 291, ¶ 8. A Man, who cannot write with Wit on a proper Subject, is dull and stupid.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina (1791), II. xxvii. 161. ‘Why is Miss Anville so grave?’ ‘Not grave, my Lord,’ said I, ‘only stupid.’
1819. Shelley, Peter Bell, VII. iii. His lordship stands and racks his Stupid brains.
1829. Hogg, Sheph. Cal., Wks. (1865), 368/2. ‘What a stupid idiot 1 was!’ exclaimed Wat.
1838. Lytton, Alice, II. iii. How stupid in Caroline not to show it to you.
1842. Lover, Handy Andy, xliii. She felt the pique which every pretty woman experiences who fancies her favours disregarded, and thought Andy the stupidest lout she ever came across.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. III. 560. Anne, who, when in good humour, was meekly stupid, and, when in bad humour, was sulkily stupid.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XXI. viii. (1872), X. 160. He knew how to listen … which no stupid man was ever capable of.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 29. I remain as stupid as ever; for still I fail to comprehend.
1879. Harlan, Eyesight, viii. 108. Children with astigmatism often appear stupid.
absol. 1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, xviii. 19. But Good Council is cast away, upon the Arrogant, the Self-conceited, or the stupid.
b. Of attributes, actions, ideas, etc.: Characterized by or indicating stupidity or dullness of comprehension.
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 131. Christians willingly lay downe their neckes vnder the light yoke … not with a stupid, or hastie mad braine-sicke, or fond toying ioy.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 145. I went to that Burying-place on the Holy Friday of the Greeks … that I might see what Ground they had for this stupid Belief.
1707. Patrick, Disc. Prayer, II. xviii. 197. Let us not … persist in such a stupid error.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 2, ¶ 3. It is a stupid and barbarous Way to extend Dominion by Arms.
a. 1770. Jortin, Serm. (1771), IV. ix. 184. Great reason have we to be thankful that we are not educated in such stupid and inhuman principles.
1819. Shelley, Peter Bell, VI. xxxii. ’Twould make George Colman melancholy To have heard him, like a male Molly, Chanting those stupid staves.
1871. C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, ii. This cursed frenzy makes me say and think the stupidest things.
1891. E. Peacock, N. Brendon, I. 122. Our stupid passion for snugness.
† c. Of the lower animals: Irrational. Also of an individual animal, its propensities, etc.: Lacking intelligence or animation, senseless, dull. Obs.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 203. And trains him up with Rudiments more false, Than Nature does her stupid Animals.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), IV. 328. [The badger] is a solitary stupid animal.
1815. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., IX. I. 19. The birds of this genus [Bucco] … are a solitary stupid race.
1867. Morris, Jason, VIII. 64. A monstrous cage, Of iron bars, shut in the stupid rage Of those two beasts.
4. Void of interest, tiresome, boring, dull.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina (1791), I. xxxiii. 179. Of all the stupid places ever I see, that Howard Grove is the worst; there’s never no getting nothing one wants.
1832. Lytton, Eugene A., I. iii. ‘I am sorry, dear Ellinor, my awkwardness should occasion you so stupid an evening,’ answered Madeline.
1845. Miss G. Jewsbury, Lett. to Mrs. Carlyle (1892), 161. I … was getting quite fat till within the last few days, when I caught cold on the stupid Rhine.
1854. Whyte-Melville, Gen. Bounce, xviii. For the first time in her experience of a London season, Blanche begins to think it a ‘stupid ball.’
1862. Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, ii. We were quartered at a stupid sea-port town.
1884. M. Creighton, Lett., 22 May, in L. Creighton, Life & Lett. (1904), I. 269. If my letter is very stupid, forgive me.
1901. W. R. H. Trowbridge, Lett. her Mother to Eliz., xviii. 89. We went once to the Empire, but it was awfully stupid, and I never want to go again.
5. Obstinate, stubborn. north. dial.
1788. W. H. Marshall, Yorksh., II. 357. Stupid; obstinate (the common epithet).
1829. Brockett, N. C. Gloss. (ed. 2), Stupid, obstinate, though possessing good talents.
1866. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton, xii. ‘So Miss Lizzie, my dear, divn’t be stupid’—she meant obstinate—‘but let yersel be guided by them as knaws best.’
1877. Holderness Gloss., Stupid, obstinate. ‘As stupid as a mule.’
1893. J. K. Snowden, Tales Yorksh. Wolds, 170. Kit Harpur were main stupid ower it.
6. Comb., as stupid-looking adj.; adverbial with another adj., as stupid-honest, -sure (nonce-wds.); stupid-head, a blockhead.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxxi. Think it’s the same boy, *Stupid-head?
1877. Tennyson, Harold, III. i. Be thou not *stupid-honest, brother Gurth!
1815. J. Campbell, Trav. S. Africa, 502. How such a *stupid looking animal [as the turtle] finds out this speck of land [Ascension island] … is truly wonderful.
1877. Tennyson, Harold, IV. iii. The people *stupid-sure Sleep like their swine.
B. sb. A stupid person, colloq.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 468, ¶ 6. Thou art no longer to drudge in raising the Mirth of Stupids, for thy Maintenance.
1819. E. S. Barrett, Metropolis, I. 222. His loudest applauders were … stupids, like Sir G. W. who scarcely could speak a word of French.
1880. Mrs. Parr, Adam & Eve, II. 17. Ain’t there no place else for us to go to, eh, stupid?
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ Valerie’s Fate, v. 89. You do not know what a thoughtless, heartless stupid I have been.
