The Collaborative International Dictionary
Half-wit \Half"-wit`\ (-w[i^]t`), n.
A foolish person; a dolt; a blockhead; a dunce.
--Dryden.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1670s, originally "a would-be wit whose abilities are mediocre;" sense of "simpleton" (one lacking all his wits) is first attested 1755.Half-wits are fleas; so little and so light,
We scarce could know they live, but that they bite.
[Dryden, "All for Love"]\nPhrase out of half wit "half out of one's mind" was in Middle English (late 14c.). Half-witted "lacking common sense" is from 1640s.
Wiktionary
n. A stupid or inept person
WordNet
Wikipedia
"Half-Wit" is the fifteenth episode of the third season of House and premiered on the FOX network on March 6, 2007. Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Dave Matthews guest stars in the episode as Patrick, a savant and piano prodigy who comes under the care of Dr. House ( Hugh Laurie) for a rare movement disorder. Dr. House also is suspected to have cancer by his staff. Also appearing is Kurtwood Smith. The episode marks the directorial debut of executive producer Katie Jacobs.
Usage examples of "half-wit".
They also passed laws that will legally put handguns into the fists of more drunks, half-wits and fruitcakes than ever before.
Still, sometimes two half-wits could add together to do something right.
He's doing his best to buddy up to the lawyers in the District Attorney's Office, and he's managed to persuade some half-wit over there that he's the resident expert on serial murders.
The British Union, the Nordic League, the Peace Pledge people, and all sorts of other dangerous bodies composed of rogues, cranks, half-wits and actual traitors were still allowed complete liberty to publish as much subversive literature as they liked and to advise cowards how to evade military service on the plea that they were conscientious objectors.
Well, you're busy, Master Druigor, so if you'll excuse me, I'll go have some words with that drunkard and then visit Master Garwin and find out how much of the family holdings my half-wit brother's given away.
Frowning, deadly serious lest he make a mistake, the half-wit loped through town, oblivious to hummingbirds whistling around the abundant hollyhocks, casting knifelike glances at shimmering magpies, recoiling almost in pain whenever turkeys, guinea hens, or geese added their shrill gobbles and honks and squeals to the furious canine cacophony that every morning except Saturday (when the Reporter didn't publish) trailed at his heels wherever he went.
He had a kind of nasty, pleased grin that reminded Richards of a half-wit he had known as a boy.
Next man in was no half-wit, but a nimble little ferret of a ship's boy with a loose lip and a cast in one eye.
I don't want to be sitting here in a dusty hall, in front of a crowd of half-wit politicians and social climbers, stuck on a wooden Throne while my arse goes numb, but I'm here.
I wondered if a man living behind a perpetual half-wit smile, a man incapable of keeping a neat house, a man conflicted enough to split his reading time between skin magazines and romance novels, could be a closet supergenius who, with electronic components from Radio Shack, would be able to transform one room of his humble home into a time machine.
The half-wit who had brought down the wrath of the Stilettos had disappeared again.
Not even Aster's--for there under the same thorn tree was surely the same half-wit boy watching the same sheep as on my very first ride.
First I must convince Earth's government that granting me a small vacation spot would in no way interfere with their local half-wit ancestral policies.