Ninnyhammer

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A foolish person; a simpleton.

    "1608, A Yorkshire Tragedy, dubiously claimed to be by William Shakespeare Why, the more fool she; aye, the more ninny hammer she."

Synonyms

All synonyms
dullardairheadblockboneheadboobboob

Example

More examples

"1608, A Yorkshire Tragedy, dubiously claimed to be by William Shakespeare Why, the more fool she; aye, the more ninny hammer she."

Etymology

Apparently from ninny (although attested slightly later) + -hammer, of unknown origin; perhaps compare earlier hammer-headed.

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