blockhead

noun

1. (colloquial)A stupid person.

   “[S]o I think, blockheads, ſaid Manfred; what is it has ſcared you thus?”

   “[…]like a conceited mechanic in a village ale-house, you would set down every one who differs from you as an ignorant blockhead[…]”

   “"What a blockhead that Charlie Brown is!"”

   “Let me tell you something, blockhead: anyone who is stupid enough to do what you did deserves—”

   “Not all of them, by no means anywhere close to all of them, just the most notable blockheads among them — three altogether, two freshmen and one sophomore, all of whom were among the first to be expelled the next day — masturbated into pairs of stolen panties[…]”

2. (abbreviation, alt-of)Short for human blockhead

   “Waldo was sent that from an elderly blockhead named Fuzzy in Gibtown, Florida. That's the town to which most freaks retire.”

   “He is a classic sideshow performer, entertaining crowds with feats such as sword swallowing, fire-eating, and chainsaw juggling. His specialty, however, is the human blockhead act, hammering six-inch nails up his nostrils.”

   “Burkhardt was a legendary figure in the sideshow world, a mentor and instructor to a new generation of blockheads and other working acts who now train in private classes at Coney Island USA's Sideshow School with Burkhardt's disciple Todd Robbins (Zigun 2006).”

3. (slang)A fan of the American boy band New Kids on the Block.

   “McCartneymania seemed to be a chance for the parents of Blockheads, the kids who swarmed the New Kids on the Block last week, to do a little gawking of their own.”

   “During Danny [Wood]’s solo spot in a New Kids concert, which comes about three-quarters of the way into the show, you can see five to ten minutes of the breakdancing routine that made him famous on the streets of Boston—and when he’s feeling particularly limber, he’ll spin on his head. (Please, do not attempt to do this, Blockheads)!”

   “There’s no doubt it has the right stuff to lure both Blockheads and those who didn’t grow up listening to Donnie Wahlberg’s New Kids on the Block or Mark [Wahlberg]’s Funky Bunch.”

   “My sister Shonda and I were complete Blockheads growing up. If we heard “Step by Step” or “Please Don’t Go Girl,” it was ON.”

   “Blockheads and music fans gathered in force to fill the arena and “Bring Back the Time” (the name of the latest New Kids song, which features tourmates En Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa and Rick Astley).”

verb

1. To perform as a human blockhead.

   “Like an old-time sideshow, the acts included lying on a bed of nails, blockheading and, of course, fire-eating.”

2. (rare)To behave in a stupid manner.

   “Two years' blockading made fair Malta ours: A noble struggle! -- yet 't is thought (at Rading) That Britain's island shews superior pow'rs, To bear, and to survive, two years blockheading !”

   “I have blockheading and boxing enough at Master Lovell's, I won't have it repeated here; and in a great passion, I threw the Virgil at his head, hit him in the face, and bruised his lip, and ran away.”

   “The operation of blockheading is much the same as that of beheading, which Charles I underwent. In both the head is severed from the body. The body goes around without benefit of head. The victim becomes a Headless Horseman, or that more common figure a Headless Pedestrian. In our day the operation is often done not on an executioner's block but on Paradise Avenue in Suburbia Manor.”