noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A person, especially a large male, who is clumsy or a simpleton. derogatory

   "Ouch! You dropped that box on my feet, you lumbering oaf!"

2. 2
   an awkward stupid person wordnet
3. 3
   An elf's child; a changeling left by fairies or goblins, hence, a deformed or foolish child. obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms

loutgalootloutchangelingairheadassweed

Antonyms

All antonyms

brain surgeonrocket scientist

Example

More examples

"Never would an oaf, whatever he may do, be considered a gentleman."

Etymology

Variant of awf, auf, aufe, probably from Old Norse álfr (“elf”) (whence Norwegian Bokmål alv). Doublet of alf and elf.

Related phrases

oaf-rocked

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