Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Easily deceived or duped.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Easily gulled or cheated.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Easily gulled; that may be duped.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Easily deceived or duped; naïve, easily cheated or fooled.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective easily tricked because of being too trusting
  • adjective naive and easily deceived or tricked

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From gull.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Either gull +‎ -ible, or from dialect Middle English gull ("newly hatched bird"), perhaps from Old Norse gulr, from the hue of its down.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word gullible.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Made you look!

    November 30, 2007

  • "Gullible" isn't listed in Theodore Bernstein's Reverse Dictionary.

    November 30, 2007

  • I have it on good authority that it won't be included in the 2009 OED

    January 23, 2008

  • This does not mean that love is gullible, but that it does not think the worst (as is the way of the world). It retains its faith. Love is not deceived . . . but it is always ready to give the benefit of the doubt. ODB May-11, 2011.

    May 11, 2011

  • WORD: gullible

    EXAMPLE from Charlotte's Web:

    "Why, how perfectly simple!" she said to herself. "The way to save Wilbur's life is to play a trick on Zuckerman. If I can fool a bug," thought Charlotte, "I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs."

    Wilbur walked into his yard at just that moment.

    "What are you thinking about, Charlotte?" he asked.

    "I was just thinking," said the spider, "that people are very gullible."

    "What does 'gullible' mean?"

    "Easy to fool," said Charlotte.

    -- 1952 E.B. WHITE. Charlotte's Web. Chapter X -- An Explosion (page 67).

    September 25, 2013