What does it mean for a person to be obtuse?
Definition of obtuse 2a : lacking sharpness or quickness of sensibility or intellect : insensitive, stupid He is too obtuse to take a hint. b : difficult to comprehend : not clear or precise in thought or expression It is also, unfortunately, ill-written, and at times obtuse and often trivial.—
Is it rude to call someone obtuse?
The adjective obtuse is good for describing someone slow on the uptake: “Don’t be so obtuse: get with the program!” The adjective obtuse literally means “rounded” or “blunt,” but when it’s used for a person, it means “not quick or alert in perception” — in other words, not the sharpest tool in the shed.
What’s the difference between abstruse and obtuse?
Abstruse means difficult to understand; obscure. Obtuse refers to an angle exceeding 90 degrees but less than 180 degrees. It also can refer to someone who is slow to understand, lacking sharpness or quickness of intellect.
What is an example of obtuse?
The definition of obtuse is someone who is slow to understand things. An example of obtuse is someone who listens to a joke but doesn’t understand the punchline.
Are you intentionally being obtuse?
By definition, being obtuse is deliberate. Just use “obtuse” and trust your readers to understand what it means (or to look it up). Obtuse is dense, slow, unintelligent. “Deliberately” being that, is an oxymoron as intelligence level isn’t something you choose.
What is an obtuse observation?
: having or showing an ability to notice and understand things clearly : mentally sharp or clever. He is an astute observer of the current political scene.
How can you be that obtuse?
You call someone obtuse when they are purposely denying something (usually the truth) because they don’t want to know, even though their own intelligence suggests they should know.
What is the synonym of obtuse?
1 unfeeling, tactless, insensitive; blind, imperceptive, unobservant; gauche, boorish; slow, dim. See synonyms for obtuse on Thesaurus.com.
What does obtuse observation mean?
Lacking quickness of perception or intellect
a. Lacking quickness of perception or intellect.
Does obtuse mean large?
In geometry class we learn about obtuse angles: those are the wide ones, greater than 90 degrees, in contrast to acute angles, which are smaller than 90 degrees. An acute angle makes a sharp point, while an obtuse person is not all that sharp intellectually.