bedunce

B3E1D2U1N1C3E1

verb

To treat as, or reduce to, a dunce; to make stupid.

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Meanings

verbbedunce (third-person singular simple present bedunces, present participle beduncing, simple past and past participle bedunced)

present singular third person bedunces · participle present beduncing · participle past bedunced · past bedunced

  1. archaicraretransitiveTo treat as, or reduce to, a dunce; to make stupid.

    After he has sufficiently bedunced us through several pages, he at last has the tenderness to answer to our particular objections, and that with sufficient perplexity.

    1866, Oliver Goldsmith, The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, page 515
    1 more example

    […] reamsful of financial or statistical calculations; the figures of which, when duly emitted in the House, sufficed to bedunce the brains of five hundred wiser men; […]

    1843, Catherine Grace Frances Gore, The Birthright, page 98

Origin

From be- + dunce.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

bedunce. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bedunce

MLA

“bedunce.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bedunce. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bedunce,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bedunce.

Source: bedunce on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.