Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state of being obtuse, in any sense.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun State or quality of being obtuse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Something that is
obtuse
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the quality of being slow to understand
- noun the quality of lacking a sharp edge or point
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Mrs. Blackwell writes her teasingly about what she calls her obtuseness, going straight ahead with her work, never knowing when she was snubbed or defeated, giving the undiluted doctrine to people without ever perceiving their frantic efforts to escape, and ignoring all the humorous features of the campaigns.
The Life and Work of Susan B Anthony 01 Harper, Ida H 1899
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Mrs. Blackwell writes her teasingly about what she calls her obtuseness, going straight ahead with her work, never knowing when she was snubbed or defeated, giving the undiluted doctrine to people without ever perceiving their frantic efforts to escape, and ignoring all the humorous features of the campaigns.
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years Ida Husted Harper 1891
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I do kind of feel that there's a certain obtuseness to the whole "they don't get it, people worked for six years on that" argument that is so often trotted out.
Tape Song SVGL 2009
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How far back should I go to illustrate your two year exercise in obtuseness demanding ‘proofs’ and replies to your straw man arguments re: 9/11 on the Xymphora website?
damn you, red baron 2008
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What you feel when faced with their obtuseness is what they feel when faced with challenging information.
Think Progress » Exxon-Backed Pundit Compares Gore To Nazi Propagandist 2006
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Oversensitivity and deliberate obtuseness is a terrible combination, Seixon†¦ you might consider trying to address at least one of those character flaws.
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Oversensitivity and deliberate obtuseness is a terrible combination, Seixon … you might consider trying to address at least one of those character flaws.
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Compounding my obtuseness is my pigheadedness (that's another guy thing, right?) -- I can't seem to shake this idea that the race is about gender and race because ...... everybody is TELLING me it's about gender and race!
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No, the ‘pot, meet kettle’ comment is intended to point up your blatant hypocrisy … not surprising that you fail to understand it, although whether your obtuseness is a result of malice of just plain stupidity is a subject for further debate.
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Holmes is entertaining (although his obtuseness is a bit overdone, I'll admit), Dr Watson is very likable and the supporting cast worked well.
MetaFilter 2010
mollusque commented on the word obtuseness
I hate the calling of meetings to order. I hate the nomination of officers, always fearing lest I should be appointed Secretary. I hate being placed on committees. They are always having meetings at which half are absent and the rest late. I hate being officially and necessarily in the presence of men most of whom, either from excessive zeal in the good cause or from constitutional obtuseness, are incapable of being bored, which state is to me the most exhausting of all conditions, absorbing more of my life than kind of active exertion I am capable of performing.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, 24 October 1862, in letter to Reverend James Freeman Clarke.
March 10, 2008
nuxiy commented on the word obtuseness
"Though today people talk more frequently about "population control" in view of the catastrophic effects of the demographic phenomenon that I have compared to cancer, this still does not address the essential issue, since a differentiated and qualitative criterion does not come into play at all. But those who oppose population control on the basis of traditionalist and pseudomoralistic ideas, which nowadays amounts to mere prejudices, are guilty of even graters obtuseness. If what really matters is the greatness and the might of a stock, it is useless to be concerned about the material quality of fatherhood unless an equal concern for its spiritual dimension is present as well in the sense of superior interests, of the correct relationship between the sexes, and above all, of what is really meant by virility - of what it still signifies on a plane that is not merely naturalistic"
- Julius Evola in "The Revolt against the Modern World"
March 23, 2009