Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who smatters, in any sense; one who has only slight or superficial knowledge.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who has only a slight, superficial knowledge; a sciolist.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who
smatters ; one whodabbles in orexperiments with a little bit of everything, especiallyknowledge .
Etymologies
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Examples
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But the worst of it is that all efforts in this direction have generally ended in producing a "smatterer," whose theories are baffled by constant disappointment, and whose worldly prosperity is lessened by his mistaken experiments.
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Nor was his the case of the mere literary smatterer, content if he but learn the names of things.
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By the first, many a smatterer acquires the reputation of a man of quick parts; by the other, many a dunderpate, like the owl, the stupidest of birds, comes to be considered the very type of wisdom.
Washington Irving 2004
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At this explanation she shook her head, and observed that no smatterer could read as I had done.
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He turned out in the end to be a mere smatterer, who did but skim over the surface of things, pretending to know every thing, but knowing nothing thoroughly.
The Alhambra 2002
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He turned out in the end to be a mere smatterer, who did but skim over the surface of things, pretending to know every thing, but knowing nothing thoroughly.
The Alhambra 2002
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Rabban Simeon, who perished in the siege of the city; and he spake these things when some of the learnedest Rabbins were by: and yet that they understood not these words, which even a smatterer in the oriental tongues would very easily understand!
From the Talmud and Hebraica 1602-1675 1979
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Any knowledge of their theory short of actual accuracy is nearly useless; perhaps worse than useless, because, by beguiling the unhappy smatterer into ambitious attempts, it cheats him of the little power he may have of rendering himself intelligible.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 61, No. 376, February, 1847 Various
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By the first many a smatterer acquires the reputation of a man of quick parts; by the other many a dunderpate, like the owl, the stupidest of birds, comes to be considered the very type of wisdom.
Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8 Charles Herbert Sylvester
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The general appearance of the poet had, from the first moment, interested me in his misfortunes; and being a smatterer in learning myself, my vanity, perhaps, was flattered with the idea of becoming the protector of a man of letters in distress.
The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan James Morier
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