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nice-but-dim

adj
/ˌnʌɪsbətˈdɪm/UK

Etymology

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

Definitions

  1. 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.
    • 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.
    • The main difference in Hong Kong was that 1997 witnessed a transition from colonial rule to government by tycoon, as the nice-but-dim shipping heir Tung Chee-hwa became the territory's first chief executive.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for nice-but-dim. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA