nimrod
nimrod — noun
- nimrodsingular
- nimrodsplural
1. an insulting word for someone who does something very silly or lacks common sens
an insulting word for someone who does something very silly or lacks common sense; it suggests the person is annoyingly foolish, not just mildly stupid.
Some nimrod parked his car right in front of the fire hydrant.
collocation: some nimrod + [irritating action]
Lauren called her brother a complete nimrod after he poured juice over her laptop.
pattern: call someone a complete nimrod
Only a total nimrod would try to dry a phone in a microwave.
Jin felt like a real nimrod after locking his keys in the car at the gas station.
Who was the nimrod that left the freezer door open all night?
- genius
opposite on the intelligence scale
文法句型
call + someone + a nimrod
用法筆記
This is the modern meaning and is always insulting. It originated as a sarcastic reference to the biblical figure Nimrod ("a mighty hunter") and is now almost never used in a positive sense.
常見錯誤
2. a person who hunts wild animals and is especially good at tracking and killing t
a person who hunts wild animals and is especially good at tracking and killing them — a very old use of the word that most modern speakers would not recognise.
The old tales describe the chief as a mighty nimrod who fed the whole village through winter.
collocation: mighty nimrod
In the hunting lodge portraits of famous nimrods lined the walls beside their trophies.
Salma's great-grandfather was a skilled nimrod who supplied fresh meat for the family every week.
The novel opens with an old nimrod teaching his grandson to read animal tracks.
文法句型
a [adjective] nimrod
用法筆記
This archaic sense is rarely used today except in historical fiction or very formal hunting contexts. Most English speakers know only the insulting sense (sense 1). The word's origin is the biblical figure Nimrod, described as 'a mighty hunter before the Lord' in Genesis.