stupid is as stupid does in English

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{
  "etymology_text": "Apparently modeled on handsome is as handsome does. Attested since at least 1862, but popularized (perhaps independently) by the 1994 film Forrest Gump.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "stupid is as stupid does",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1882 Anthony Trollope: Orley Farm\nAs long as a man can pay twenty shillings in the pound and a trifle over, what does it matter\nif all the judges in the land was to call him stupid?' said Snengkeld.\n\"Stupid is as stupid does.\" said Kantwise.\n\"Stupid be d--.\" said Moulder.\n\"Mr. Moulder, there's ladies present.\" said Mrs. Smiley,"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Stupid behaviour indicates stupidity."
      ],
      "id": "en-stupid_is_as_stupid_does-en-proverb-Rm3mG4~a",
      "links": [
        [
          "Stupid",
          "stupid#English"
        ],
        [
          "behaviour",
          "behaviour"
        ],
        [
          "indicate",
          "indicate"
        ],
        [
          "stupidity",
          "stupidity"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Forrest Gump"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "stupid is as stupid does"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "etymology_text": "Apparently modeled on handsome is as handsome does. Attested since at least 1862, but popularized (perhaps independently) by the 1994 film Forrest Gump.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "stupid is as stupid does",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1882 Anthony Trollope: Orley Farm\nAs long as a man can pay twenty shillings in the pound and a trifle over, what does it matter\nif all the judges in the land was to call him stupid?' said Snengkeld.\n\"Stupid is as stupid does.\" said Kantwise.\n\"Stupid be d--.\" said Moulder.\n\"Mr. Moulder, there's ladies present.\" said Mrs. Smiley,"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Stupid behaviour indicates stupidity."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Stupid",
          "stupid#English"
        ],
        [
          "behaviour",
          "behaviour"
        ],
        [
          "indicate",
          "indicate"
        ],
        [
          "stupidity",
          "stupidity"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Forrest Gump"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "stupid is as stupid does"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). 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.

"stupid is as stupid does" meaning in English

Proverb