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Oaf vs Clodhopper - What's the difference?

oaf | clodhopper | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between oaf and clodhopper

is that oaf is an elf's child; a changeling left by fairies or goblins, hence, a deformed or foolish child while clodhopper is a strong shoe for heavy-duty use, a boot.

oaf

English

Alternative forms

* auf

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) An elf's child; a changeling left by fairies or goblins, hence, a deformed or foolish child.
  • (pejorative) A person, especially a large male, who is clumsy or a simpleton; an idiot.
    • Ouch! You dropped that box on my feet, you lumbering oaf !

    Synonyms

    * (clumsy or idiotic person ): dummy, galoot, imbecile, lout, moron, fool

    Derived terms

    * oafish

    References

    Anagrams

    * *

    clodhopper

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A strong shoe for heavy-duty use, a boot.
  • * 1830 , Margaret Hundy, "First Epistle from Mrs. Margaret Hundy", The Lady's Magazine :
  • *:...who had got on his "hill shoes," as he calls a pair of clodhoppers as thick as a ploughman's, and stuck round with nails.
  • (US) Any kind of shoe.
  • * 1959 , Claude F. Koch, "A Matter of Family":
  • *:We had to walk slow because of his wooden clod-hoppers , and that was the way I wanted it now
  • (military slang) United States Navy ankle length work shoes, distinct from dress shoes or combat boots.
  • * 1943 , "Senators go global: Five will fly to all fronts", LIFE Magazine , August 16:
  • *:Smiling Jim Mead of New York tries on his GI clodhopper boots. He decided to return them "because we couldn't make any altitude with those aboard."
  • A peasant or yokel.
  • *1719 , René Le Bossu (translated by Pierre François le Courayer and Peter Anthony Motteux), Monsieur Bossu's treatise of the epick poem , :
    • ...now a book is no greater rarity than bacon and greens in Virginia; and the clodhopper of this country returns from his daily labours to a book
  • *1869 , Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Lorna Doone , :
  • *:'Nephew Jack,' he cried, looking at me when I was thinking what to say, and finding only emptiness, 'you are a heavy lout, sir; a bumpkin, a clodhopper ; and I shall leave you nothing, unless it be my boots to grease.'
  • (UK) A clumsy or foolish person.
  • *1826 , P.H. Clias, "Gymnastics", Blackwood's Magazine , Volume XX, No. CXV, August:
  • *:All guess-work exploits shrivel up a good yard, or sometimes two, when brought to the measure, and the champion of the county dwindles into a clumsy clod-hopper .
  • Wheatear; any of various passerine birds.
  • *1834 , Robert Mudie, The Feathered Tribes of the British Islands , Volume 1:
  • *:...and as the birds then begin to resort to the downs and open commons, the "fallow-chat," "wheat-ear," and "clodhopper ," are not unappropriate names.

    • Usage notes

    This term mostly occurs in the plural, e.g. “a pair of clodhoppers .”