Word.ws English Dictionary

idiot-proof

idiot-proof adjective: incapable of being misused even by the most stupid or careless of users.

Adjective

idiot-proof (comparative more idiot-proof, superlative most idiot-proof)

  1. (humorous, informal) Incapable of being misused even by the most stupid or careless of users.
    • I tell you, this scheme is idiot-proof! It can't go wrong.

Verb

idiot-proof (third-person singular simple present idiot-proofs, present participle idiot-proofing, simple past and past participle idiot-proofed)

  1. (transitive) To render something idiot-proof.

Forms of idiot-proof

Adjective
comparativemore idiot-proof
superlativemost idiot-proof
alternative formidiotproof
Verb
third-person singular presentidiot-proofs
present participleidiot-proofing
past participleidiot-proofed
pastidiot-proofed

Origin of idiot-proof

From idiot + -proof.

Questions about idiot-proof

What does idiot-proof mean?
Idiot-proof means incapable of being misused even by the most stupid or careless of users.
What part of speech is idiot-proof?
Idiot-proof can be an adjective or a verb.

Words near idiot-proof in the dictionary

  1. idiot's apostrophes
  2. idiot's delight
  3. idiot's errand
  4. idiot's lantern
  5. idiot's lanterns
  6. idiot-proof
  7. idiot-proofed
  8. idiot-proofing
  9. idiot-proofs
  10. idiot-savant
  11. idiota

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: idiot-proof (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.

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

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