Word.ws English Dictionary

crayon eater

crayon eater noun: an unintelligent or mentally disabled person.

Noun

crayon eater (plural crayon eaters)

  1. (derogatory, slang) An unintelligent or mentally disabled person.
    • At least one thread devolved into a bunch of crayon-eaters arguing over whether a pistol would really “burn like that”, whether a Glock or an XD would burn harder or melt faster.2014 September 5, David Reeder, “Friday night gun porn – wait…what?”, in Recoil (magazine)
    • We all know at least one Marine who scored 99 on the ASVAB, and we know this because he will typically proclaim it loudly, and often. Usually to try to set himself apart from the horde of ASVAB waivers and Crayon eaters in the Corps — the orange ones taste the best. All joking aside, there’s a lot...2017 November 10, James Clark, “7 Other Honors The Marines Should Dish Out During The Birthday Ball”, in Task & Purpose
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see crayon, eater.
    • The department concluded its report with a suggested treatment for crayon eaters.1951 February 3, “Dyes Do It: ‘Blue Baby’ Crayon-Eating Case Solved”, in Los Angeles Times, volume LXX, Los Angeles, Calif., part 1, page 2, column 3
    • I was seeing colors... greens (forest greens, light greens, and other subtle shades of green), blues, gold, silver, and even-⁠-I know you think I'm making this up-⁠-even that super-flourescent^([sic]) pink. I can't help myself-⁠-I'm a crayon eater.1995 January–February, Desparate^([sic]) [pseudonym], “Advice”, in Peek-a-Boo, number 12, Austin, Tex., page 26, column 2

Examples of crayon eater in a sentence

  • Usually to try to set himself apart from the horde of ASVAB waivers and Crayon eaters in the Corps — the orange ones taste the best.2017 November 10, James Clark, “7 Other Honors The Marines Should Dish Out During The Birthday Ball”, in Task & Purpose:
  • As I glanced over my shoulder to see that it was working again, and I said to myself, "Fucking crayon eater."2019, Kirby Calhoun, Single Set of Bootprints: A Story of a God-made Green Beret, →ISBN, page 219:

Synonyms of crayon eater

Forms of crayon eater

pluralcrayon eaters
alternative formcrayon-eater

Origin of crayon eater

From a tendency in small children and people with developmental disabilities to eat or crave objects that are not food. Associated from the early 2010s with members of the United States Marine Corps, and adopted as a self-deprecating meme.

Questions about crayon eater

What does crayon eater mean?
Crayon eater means an unintelligent or mentally disabled person.
How do you use crayon eater in a sentence?
Usually to try to set himself apart from the horde of ASVAB waivers and Crayon eaters in the Corps — the orange ones taste the best.
What part of speech is crayon eater?
Crayon eater is a noun.
What is the plural of crayon eater?
The plural of crayon eater is crayon eaters.

Words near crayon eater in the dictionary

  1. Craynes
  2. Crayola
  3. crayon
  4. crayon board
  5. crayon boards
  6. crayon eater
  7. crayon eaters
  8. crayon license
  9. crayon licenses
  10. crayon-eater
  11. crayon-eaters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crayon eater (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-crayon eater.wav.

Cite this entry: “crayon eater.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crayon_eater. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.