Meaning

3 senses
  1. (derogatory)A person, especially a large male, who is clumsy or a simpleton.

    Ouch! You dropped that box on my feet, you lumbering oaf!

    Tölpel

    болва́нbolván

  2. (dated, derogatory)An ill-mannered person; a boor.

    an awkward stupid person

  3. (obsolete)An elf's child; a changeling left by fairies or goblins, hence, a deformed or foolish child.

Examples

8 sentences
  1. That oaf has no manners, always interrupting.

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  2. Those oafs tracked mud across the clean floor.

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  3. The oafs knocked over the table while trying to move it.

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  4. The king's guards were strong, but they were also complete oafs.

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  5. Never would an oaf, whatever he may do, be considered a gentleman.

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Translations

7 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
imbecile:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
imbecile:

Origin

Variant of awf, aufe, probably from Old Norse álfr (“elf”) (whence Norwegian Bokmål alv).

Variant of awf, aufe, probably from Old Norse álfr (“elf”) (whence Norwegian Bokmål alv). Doublet of alf and elf.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: oafs / oaves
Singularoaf
Pluraloafs / oaves

regular

Synonyms

15 synonyms
clumsy or idiotic person:dummy
elf's child:swaplingauf
Close in meaning

Word family

4 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
oaf — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto