Meaning & use
dunce cap
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Meanings
nouncountableold-fashioned
A tall, pointed paper hat once put on a pupil who was seen as slow, to shame them in front of the class.
Grammar: Countable: a dunce cap.
Patterns
- wear a dunce cap
- put a dunce cap on someone
In the old cartoon, the pupil sat in the corner wearing a dunce cap.
Teachers no longer make children wear a dunce cap.
She drew a dunce cap on the picture as a joke.
nouncountablefigurativehumorous
A symbol of being thought stupid or foolish, often used jokingly.
Grammar: Used figuratively, often with wear or earn.
Patterns
- wear the dunce cap
I'll wear the dunce cap for forgetting the tickets.
He joked that he deserved the dunce cap after the mistake.
Word forms
| plural | dunce caps |
|---|
Common combinations
- wear a dunce cap
- He had to wear a dunce cap in the story.
- in a dunce cap
- The cartoon showed a student in a dunce cap.
- earn a dunce cap
- After that blunder, I've earned the dunce cap.
- paper dunce cap
- The paper dunce cap fell off his head.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fool's cap
- Fool's cap is a jester's hat, which suggests playful foolishness rather than classroom punishment.
Word family
- dunce noun
- a person seen as stupid or slow to learn
Commonly confused: dunce cap or dunce?
dunce cap vs dunce
A dunce is the person labeled stupid, while a dunce cap is the hat itself.
Practice
In old stories, why might a pupil be made to wear a dunce cap?
Choose one answer.
A dunce cap was meant to humiliate a pupil who struggled. It was never a reward or a uniform.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dunce cap”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.