Nice-but-dim

//ˌnʌɪsbətˈdɪm// adj, slang

adj, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Good-natured, while also being rather unintelligent. UK, colloquial, not-comparable

    "[…] he was worried that Michael Parkinson might ask him questions with long words that he wouldn't understand, no doubt fearing a resurgence of the “nice-but-dim” taunts that had all too often come his way."

Example

More examples

"[…] he was worried that Michael Parkinson might ask him questions with long words that he wouldn't understand, no doubt fearing a resurgence of the “nice-but-dim” taunts that had all too often come his way."

Etymology

From nice + but + dim, popularised by the character Tim Nice-But-Dim on Harry Enfield's Television Programme.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.