Word.ws English Dictionary

addle pate

addle pate noun: a foolish or dull-witted person.

Noun

addle pate (plural addle pates)

  1. (archaic) A foolish or dull-witted person.
    • Then he executed a war-dance, and at its close stepped before Crawford, regarded him for an instant, and croaked out:
      “Addle-pate! Addle-pate!”
      “Upon my word, I believe you are the foul fiend himself,” muttered Mark.1882, Frank Lee Benedict, “Miss Alderly's Law-Suit”, in Peterson's Magazine, volumes 81-82, page 443
  2. (archaic) Such a person’s brain or mental faculties.
    • Am I to be ramshaklt out of the super nakullums in spite o’ my teeth? Yea and go softly! I crack the nut and you eat the kernel!
      I tellee once again you’ve an addle pate o’ your own! [...] Squire Nincompoop!1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives
    • “Go to bed, and don’t bother your addle pate about your neighbours. Can’t a man cut up a few sticks without your coming to investigate?”1910, Grace S. Richmond, Red Pepper Burns

Forms of addle pate

pluraladdle pates

Origin of addle pate

From addle (“confused”) + pate (“head”).

Questions about addle pate

What does addle pate mean?
Addle pate means a foolish or dull-witted person.
What part of speech is addle pate?
Addle pate is a noun.
What is the plural of addle pate?
The plural of addle pate is addle pates.

Words near addle pate in the dictionary

  1. additory
  2. additur
  3. additurs
  4. ADDL
  5. addle
  6. addle pate
  7. addle pates
  8. addle-brain
  9. addle-brained
  10. addle-brains
  11. addle-headed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: addle pate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “addle pate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/addle_pate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.