not the sharpest knife in the drawer
not the sharpest knife in the drawer noun: lacking in intelligence; dimwitted.
Noun
not the sharpest knife in the drawer (plural not the sharpest knives in the drawer)
- Lacking in intelligence; dimwitted.
- You can block or tackle, or you can do some exotic things with a football cradled under your arm, but you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to book learning.1994 September 5, Richard Hoffer, “Get Smart!”, in Sports Illustrated
- 2003,Lucille Bluth, Arrested Development, S:1 E:3 “And I know he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he's sensitive, Michael,”
“He fits in a lot of ways, but he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, is he?”
“Maybe he just plays it stupid so people expect less of him.”
- Synonyms:
- not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, not the sharpest crayon in the box, not the sharpest tool in the box/shed, dumb as a bag of hammers/…box of rocks
Synonyms of not the sharpest knife in the drawer
- not the brightest bulb in the chandelier
- not the sharpest crayon in the box
- not the sharpest tool in the box/shed
- dumb as a bag of hammers/…box of rocks
Forms of not the sharpest knife in the drawer
| plural | not the sharpest knives in the drawer |
|---|
Questions about not the sharpest knife in the drawer
- What does not the sharpest knife in the drawer mean?
- Not the sharpest knife in the drawer means lacking in intelligence; dimwitted.
- What part of speech is not the sharpest knife in the drawer?
- Not the sharpest knife in the drawer is a noun.
- What is the plural of not the sharpest knife in the drawer?
- The plural of not the sharpest knife in the drawer is not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
Words near not the sharpest knife in the drawer in the dictionary
- not the brightest bulb
- not the brightest bulb in the chandelier
- not the case
- not the end of the world
- not the sharpest crayon in the box
- not the sharpest knife in the drawer
- not the sharpest knives in the drawer
- not the sharpest pencil in the box
- not the sharpest tool in the box
- not the sharpest tool in the shed
- not to be outdone
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: not the sharpest knife in the drawer (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-not the sharpest knife in the drawer.wav.
Cite this entry: “not the sharpest knife in the drawer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/not_the_sharpest_knife_in_the_drawer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.