Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Easily deceived or duped.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Easily gulled or cheated.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Easily gulled; that may be duped.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Easily
deceived orduped ;naïve , easilycheated orfooled .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective easily tricked because of being too trusting
- adjective naive and easily deceived or tricked
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word gullible.
Examples
-
He chastised what he termed gullible Western media for repeating the US envoys comments without seeking the government's side of the story.
-
Most of these posts seem to relish in their own absurdity (I'm looking at you, TÖRdötCÖM), and the point of embarassing the gullible is missed, with instead the emphasis being placed on how well-crafted the hoax appears or the right timing of things (neither of which matter).
What I really hate about April Fool's Day and the Internet pabba 2009
-
In early casting breakdowns for the role, Shane is described as a gullible and enthusiastic baseball player.
-
Dude, I checked, gullible is totally in the dictionary
Did you know the word “gullible” doesn’t appear in the dictionary? 2009
-
May 10th, 2008 2: 45 pm ET how freakin gullible does billary think americans are (except her hardcore cult followers who she'll lead to the gates of hell). she voted yes on the iraq war and now goin against it? what a idiot, shouldnt have voted yes in the first place
-
A friend once made the preposterous claim that the word gullible wasn't in the dictionary.
Strange Fruit 2008
-
The star is a hapless jock who seems to have the word gullible stamped on his forehead.
Blading On Thin Ice 2008
-
Hey AFP, did you know the word gullible doesn't appear in the French-English dictionary?
On a Short Leach 2008
-
Does the word gullible appear in the AP stylebook?
-
In fact, I was told that if you look up the word gullible in the dictionary you will find my picture.
uselessness commented on the word gullible
Made you look!
November 30, 2007
mollusque commented on the word gullible
"Gullible" isn't listed in Theodore Bernstein's Reverse Dictionary.
November 30, 2007
gangerh commented on the word gullible
I have it on good authority that it won't be included in the 2009 OED
January 23, 2008
Kristianto2010 commented on the word gullible
This does not mean that love is gullible, but that it does not think the worst (as is the way of the world). It retains its faith. Love is not deceived . . . but it is always ready to give the benefit of the doubt. ODB May-11, 2011.
May 11, 2011
dinkum commented on the word gullible
WORD: gullible
EXAMPLE from Charlotte's Web:
"Why, how perfectly simple!" she said to herself. "The way to save Wilbur's life is to play a trick on Zuckerman. If I can fool a bug," thought Charlotte, "I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs."
Wilbur walked into his yard at just that moment.
"What are you thinking about, Charlotte?" he asked.
"I was just thinking," said the spider, "that people are very gullible."
"What does 'gullible' mean?"
"Easy to fool," said Charlotte.
-- 1952 E.B. WHITE. Charlotte's Web. Chapter X -- An Explosion (page 67).
September 25, 2013