hammerhead

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence
noun the striking part of a hammer
noun medium-sized live-bearing shark with eyes at either end of a flattened hammer-shaped head; worldwide in warm waters; can be dangerous

From hammer + head.

The Dancies came, too, and S. B. Whitebait, who was well over sixty, and Maurice A. Flink, and the Hammerheads, and Beluga the tobacco importer, and Beluga’s girls. — The Great Gatsby, F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald
"I've faced the dreadful Hammerheads, which have no arms and butt you like a goat; and I've faced the Fighting Trees, which bend down their branches to pound and whip you, and had many other adventures there." — The Patchwork Girl of Oz, L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
If any part of a body, as, for instance, a hammerhead, should require hardening, it may be plunged into the liquid for a short distance only, and this will harden the pole or peon while leaving the other part of the head soft, or annealed. — Practical Mechanics for Boys, James Slough Zerbe

dunce, dunderhead, numskull, blockhead, bonehead, lunkhead, knucklehead, loggerhead, muttonhead, shithead, dumbass, fuckhead

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