"Poindexter" meaning in English

See Poindexter in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

IPA: /ˈpɔɪnˌdɛkstɚ/ [General-American], /ˈpɔɪnˌdɛkstə/ [Received-Pronunciation] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Poindexter.wav
Etymology: From Jersey Norman Poingdestre (literally “right fist”). The sense “bookish or socially unskilled person” is from the character of the same name in the cartoon Felix the Cat. Its first use appears c. 1981 in the publication University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Slang. Its first use, rather, appears in the Dick Sargent "Saturday Evening Post" cover painting entitled "Picking Poindexter" dated October 1959, one year after Felix the Cat began on television. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|nrf-jer|Poingdestre|lit=right fist}} Jersey Norman Poingdestre (literally “right fist”), {{m-g|bookish or socially unskilled person}} “bookish or socially unskilled person”, {{circa2|1981|short=yes}} c. 1981 Head templates: {{en-proper noun}} Poindexter
  1. A surname from Jersey Norman.
    Sense id: en-Poindexter-en-name-HjJMKj5Y Categories (other): English surnames

Noun

IPA: /ˈpɔɪnˌdɛkstɚ/ [General-American], /ˈpɔɪnˌdɛkstə/ [Received-Pronunciation] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Poindexter.wav Forms: Poindexters [plural], poindexter [alternative]
Etymology: From Jersey Norman Poingdestre (literally “right fist”). The sense “bookish or socially unskilled person” is from the character of the same name in the cartoon Felix the Cat. Its first use appears c. 1981 in the publication University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Slang. Its first use, rather, appears in the Dick Sargent "Saturday Evening Post" cover painting entitled "Picking Poindexter" dated October 1959, one year after Felix the Cat began on television. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|nrf-jer|Poingdestre|lit=right fist}} Jersey Norman Poingdestre (literally “right fist”), {{m-g|bookish or socially unskilled person}} “bookish or socially unskilled person”, {{circa2|1981|short=yes}} c. 1981 Head templates: {{en-noun}} Poindexter (plural Poindexters)
  1. (US, colloquial) A bookish or socially unskilled person. Tags: US, colloquial Synonyms: geek, nerd, dork, flabbergast, flabagast, flabaghast, gink, nerd, Nigel [Australian, slang], nosebleed Derived forms: poindexterish
    Sense id: en-Poindexter-en-noun-RkZ1IyLC Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 14 86 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 23 77 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 19 81

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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        "2": "nrf-jer",
        "3": "Poingdestre",
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      "name": "bor"
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        "1": "1981",
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  "etymology_text": "From Jersey Norman Poingdestre (literally “right fist”). The sense “bookish or socially unskilled person” is from the character of the same name in the cartoon Felix the Cat. Its first use appears c. 1981 in the publication University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Slang. Its first use, rather, appears in the Dick Sargent \"Saturday Evening Post\" cover painting entitled \"Picking Poindexter\" dated October 1959, one year after Felix the Cat began on television.",
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      "ipa": "/ˈpɔɪnˌdɛkstɚ/",
      "tags": [
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              91,
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          "ref": "2003 April 6, David X. Cohen, “The Why of Fry”, in Futurama, season 5, episode 8, Fox Broadcasting Company:",
          "text": "Brain: A quantum-interface bomb? Are you insane in the membrane? / Philip Fry: You got it, Poindexter!",
          "type": "quotation"
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              65,
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          "ref": "2023 August 8, Janan Ganesh, “The oneness of Ron DeSantis and Rishi Sunak”, in Financial Times:",
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        }
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        "A bookish or socially unskilled person."
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        "(US, colloquial) A bookish or socially unskilled person."
      ],
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        {
          "word": "geek"
        },
        {
          "word": "nerd"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "dork"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "flabbergast"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "flabagast"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "flabaghast"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "gink"
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          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "nerd"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "tags": [
            "Australian",
            "slang"
          ],
          "word": "Nigel"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "nosebleed"
        }
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        "colloquial"
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      "ipa": "/ˈpɔɪnˌdɛkstə/",
      "tags": [
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  "etymology_text": "From Jersey Norman Poingdestre (literally “right fist”). The sense “bookish or socially unskilled person” is from the character of the same name in the cartoon Felix the Cat. Its first use appears c. 1981 in the publication University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Slang. Its first use, rather, appears in the Dick Sargent \"Saturday Evening Post\" cover painting entitled \"Picking Poindexter\" dated October 1959, one year after Felix the Cat began on television.",
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          "text": "Brain: A quantum-interface bomb? Are you insane in the membrane? / Philip Fry: You got it, Poindexter!",
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        }
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        "A bookish or socially unskilled person."
      ],
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        "(US, colloquial) A bookish or socially unskilled person."
      ],
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          "word": "geek"
        },
        {
          "word": "nerd"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "dork"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "flabbergast"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "flabagast"
        },
        {
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          "word": "flabaghast"
        },
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          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "word": "gink"
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          "word": "nerd"
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          "source": "Thesaurus:dork",
          "tags": [
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            "slang"
          ],
          "word": "Nigel"
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          "word": "nosebleed"
        }
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    }
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  "wikipedia": [
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  "word": "Poindexter"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.