nimrod

plural nimrods · alternative nimnod · alternative nimwad

1. USderogatoryinformalA foolish person; an idiot.

   Don't stick your fingers in the fan, you nimrod!

   3 more examples

   Jules, if you give this nimrod fifteen hundred bucks, I'm gonna shoot 'em on general principle.

   1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Vincent (John Travolta)

   “I can't keep doing this. Uh, I can't keep pretending to be Mr. Charisma to all these nimrods. It's awful.” “But the Energy Vampire Council said we have to win, or else.” [exhales] “No. No. No. Enough. It ends now.”

   2023 July 27, Max Brockman & Shana Gohd, “The Campaign” (17:54 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 4, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch)

   “What is going on here?” “They had a strategy, Ty, which we should have had, which I did have.” “And she was properly wary of Barfus and me.” “What? Why would anyone be wary of you guys?” “Because we're spies, ya nimrod.” “Of course they are.”

   2025 May 11, Monica Padrick, “Don Tyxote” (17:17 from the start), in Krapopolis, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Barfus (T. J. Ramini)

   Synonyms: doofus, fathead, addle-brain, addlehead, addle pate, airhead, baboon, beanbrain

1. biblicalA grandson of Ham; a mighty hunter and king of Shinar.

   Blake's depiction of the biblical Nimrod, whom Erdman traces to Young's poem, recalls Milton's Paradise Lost.

   1993, G. A. Rosso, Blake's Prophetic Workshop: A Study of The Four Zoas, page 80

   2 more examples

   In the fourth century St. Ephraim the Syrian wrote, in his commentary on Genesis, that Nimrod 'ruled in Erekh which is Orhay (Edessa)'.[…]In Jewish and thereafter in Moslem tradition, Nimrod was the foe of Abraham.

   2005, J. B. Segal, Edessa: The Blessed City, page 1

   The historical facts testify that they were highly developed; Nimrod, a descendant of Ham, therefore making him Hamitic, was the first human king not just of Bible record, but secular history also speaks of him. He ruled over a kingdom that included several cities in Mesopotamia.

   2010, Khamit Raamah Kush, Faces of the Hamitic People, unnumbered page

2. A British biplane fighter aircraft manufactured by Hawker Aircraft in the early 1930s.
3. A British maritime patrol aircraft manufactured by Hawker Siddeley, in use from 1969 until 2011.

plural Nimrods

1. Any great hunter.

   Precisely what I was wondering, my little Nimrod.

   1948 February 14, William Scott and Lloyd Turner, 5:34 from the start, in Arthur Davis, director, What Makes Daffy Duck, spoken by Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc)

   1 more example

   Old Ekdal, whom Gregers remembers as Lieutenant Ekdal, his father's partner in the timber business up north and a mighty Nimrod, has, after a term of imprisonment for illicit tree-felling, become a shambling old drunkard, who solaces himself by sporting expeditions in the lean-to attic which his son and he have fitted up for the purpose with withered Christmas trees and a little menagerie of hens, rabbits and the like.

   1966, Brian W. Downs, Modern Norwegian Literature 1860-1918, page 116

2. Alternative letter-case form of nimrod (“fool; idiot”).