absent-minded professor

plural absent-minded professors · alternative rare absentminded professor

1. A stereotypical fictional character whose focus on academic matters leads them to ignore or forget their surroundings.

   Professor Oak, the world's leading Pokémon expert, is at once a genius and a bumbling, absent-minded professor

   2009, Mark I. West, The Japanification of children's popular culture: from godzilla to miyazaki, page 59

   3 more examples

   An absent-minded professor, in going out of the gateway of his college, ran against a cow. In the confusion of the moment, he raised his hat, and exclaimed: " I beg your pardon, Madam." Soon after, he stumbled against a lady in the street. In sudden recollection of his former mishap, he called out: "Is that you again, you brute?"

   1864, The American Educational Monthly, volume 1, page 23

   Although the absent-minded professor has appeared frequently in American humor it is safe to assert that the dire extremity of the learned man in the tragedy of A Defective Memory could hardly have been reached outside of Germany.

   1890, Charles Stuart Pratt, “Adolf Oberlauder, Humorist”, in The Cosmopolitan, volume 9, page 612

   Even when the absent-minded professor comes in and says he wants a book he saw noticed a few weeks ago, he has forgotten the author's name and can't recall the title, but he is sure it is a good book because the Nation or the Saturday Review, he really can't remember which, said so, try to find out what he wants and get it for him.

   1897, Melvin Dewey et al., Library Journal, volume 22, page 42

2. broadlyA person who tends to be oblivious to reality.

   Judith: I call Jim "The Ditz" when he is the absent-minded professor.

   2003, Judith Sherven with James Sniechowski, Be Loved for Who You Really Are, page 172

   3 more examples

   Snapshot: Jimmy, a third-grader, is an absent-minded professor before his time. He forgets everything, from his lunch box in the morning, to his raincoat

   1997, Edward M. Hallowell, When You Worry About the Child You Love, page 38

   […] a dreamy youth whose siblings teased him for being an absent-minded professor.

   2005, Amy Demorest, Psychology's grand theorists: how personal experiences shaped professional ideas, page 174

   “My brother, the absent-minded professor,” she said, motioning to me with her thumb. “Don't you know why that date looks familiar, silly?

   2009, Mitchell Graham, Dead Docket, page 274