Word.ws English Dictionary

nice-but-dim

UK/ˌnʌɪsbətˈdɪm/

nice-but-dim adjective: good-natured, while also being rather unintelligent.

Adjective

nice-but-dim (not comparable)

  1. (UK, colloquial) Good-natured, while also being rather unintelligent.
    • […] he was worried that Michael Parkinson might ask him questions with long words that he wouldn't understand, no doubt fearing a resurgence of the “nice-but-dim” taunts that had all too often come his way.2001, Andrew Morton, Posh & Becks, page 190
    • While there was always a touch of the caricature about the Sandhurst cadet as the nice-but-dim public schoolboy, there was also a significant measure of truth.2002 July 23, John Crace, The Guardian

Origin of nice-but-dim

From nice + but + dim, popularised by the character Tim Nice-But-Dim on Harry Enfield's Television Programme.

Questions about nice-but-dim

What does nice-but-dim mean?
Nice-but-dim means good-natured, while also being rather unintelligent.
What part of speech is nice-but-dim?
Nice-but-dim is an adjective.
How do you pronounce nice-but-dim?
Nice-but-dim is pronounced /ˌnʌɪsbətˈdɪm/ (UK).

Words near nice-but-dim in the dictionary

  1. nice one
  2. nice to meet you
  3. nice try
  4. nice weather for ducks
  5. nice work if you can get it
  6. nice-but-dim
  7. nice-like
  8. nice-looking
  9. nice-Nelliness
  10. nice-nelly
  11. nice-nellyism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nice-but-dim (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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