melonhead

plural melonheads

1. USOne of a group of legendary beings, known in parts of Connecticut, Michigan, and Ohio, generally described as small humanoids with bulbous heads who occasionally emerge from hiding-places to attack people.

   Melonhead stories appear in Michigan and Connecticut, though Ohio’s Peninsula stores are the most persistent

   2026 June 5, Jannette Quackenbush, “Ohio Cryptids”, in Cryptids of the Appalachian Heartland- a Little Field Guide to the Mysterious Creatures of Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, 21 Crows Dusk to Dawn Publishing, →ISBN, page 31

   1 more example

   Melonheads don’t seem to have developed the knack of raising food. Rather, they survive in the woods by dining on whatever they catch--fish, frogs, bugs, moles, or roadkill. That is, between their occasional human flesh feasts. Local legend holds that people sightseeing, biking, or hiking in the vicinity of any Melonhead habitat are likely to vanish, never to be seen again.

   2005, Joseph A. Citro, “Fabled People and Places”, in Weird New England: Your Travel Guide to New England's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets, Sterling Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 63

2. AustraliaUSderogatoryinformalA fool or idiot.

   Uncle Gene turned toward Dad. "Let the melonhead laugh. We'll show him, won't we, pard?"

   1992, P. J. Peterson, Liars, New York, N.Y. […]: Scholastic Inc., published 1994, →ISBN, page 162

   3 more examples

   The picture showed the group, a gurning, multichinned James looking like a melonhead in the foreground, dressed in formal evening-wear and cummerbunds. How the fuck had they got hold of those pictures? The boys looked like a cabaret band. It was bad. It was very bad.

   1999, Kevin Sampson, Powder: An Everyday Story of Rock 'N' Roll Folk, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 477

   “Then stop being melon-heads. Goodness, I swear sometimes you don’t have the sense God gave a goose.”

   2001 June 28, Lee Martin, chapter 2, in Quakertown: A Novel, Dutton, →ISBN, page 22

   Of course you should you melonhead. Why are you being so obtuse. You are just making my whole point.

   2005 April 21, Lee Harris, “Shefield and the Fan”, in alt.sports.baseball.bos-redsox (Usenet)

   Synonyms: alcatote, asshat, arsehole, asshole, bayard, berk, birdbrain, blither