Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Doltish; stupid.

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

  • adjective obsolete Dull; stupid.

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

  • adjective obsolete dull; stupid

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin hebes, hebetis, dull, stupid, from hebere to be dull.

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Examples

  • His book on the action of worms, however, was shown by Professor Paley and other writers {242a} to contain many serious errors and omissions, though it involved no personal question; but I imagine him to have been more or less hebete when he wrote this book.

    Luck or Cunning? Samuel Butler 1868

  • For I am becoming more hebete every hour: and have not even the ambition to go up to London all this spring to see the Exhibitions, etc.

    Letters of Edward FitzGerald in two volumes, Vol. 1 Edward FitzGerald 1846

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