Slangora

gormless

(chiefly, UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, of a person) Lacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish.

ˈɡɔːmləsCurrent167 viewsLast reviewed Jun 29, 2026+ Add a definition
🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
1 definition
Community
Seen in the wild
4 citations · last seen May 2026

Seen in the wild

Definitions

UK
#1·Apr 27, 2026UK

(chiefly, UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, of a person) Lacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish.

But Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.
Origin: From dialectal English , from , from , heed, attention. The ‘r’ found in this spelling is a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Heard in the wild
  • “Places where gullible & gormless voters appear ready to elect incompetent, racist Reform. This country is about to get even nastier for vulnerable minorities. 🫣https://liveapp.inews.co.uk/category/4398628/content.html”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “Bit rich of Paterson to be filming the one nation volunteer. Those poor gormless idiots don’t stand a chance.”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “I mean, this is The Buttermarket, so a large part of the heritage for that particular spot is 'bumping into coachloads of gormless tourists' (I'm with the 'increase seating' crowd - the Buttermarket is for dicking about having a drink or a snack)”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “this is also undercut aswell by literally the next person in the video instantly going "this shit is unpronuncable I cant be assed so cut my some slack". Nightmare blunt rotation because john gormless shows why it's still a better take to have as a baseline then the next dimwit.”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
Was this helpful?

Comments

Used in

UK

Have a better definition?

Add your own interpretation of "gormless".

Add definition

🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang

UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.

See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.

Tags

Other words near "gormless" (G)

Browse all slang words starting with G.

Related terms

People also read

Semantically related