pumpkin head n
A foolish or stupid person.
[1848 (1849) Irving Hist. NY 247, Beside each pumpkin-head peered the end of a rusty musket.] 1884 Twain Huck. Finn 151, Ef we hadn’ . . ben sich punkin-heads . . we’d seed de raf’. 1898 Frederic Deserter 143 OH, You can’t raise a plug [of tobacco] in a whole regiment of ’em. Regular pumpkin-heads! 1899 (1912) Green VA Folk-Speech 339, Punkin-head. . . A stupid fellow; a dolt. 1918 Lincoln Shavings 232 eMA, Can’t make a man out of a punkinhead. 1919 DN 5.62 CA, Pumpkin-head, a dull, stupid fellow. 1929 AmSp 5.119 ME, A stupid individual was a “mutton head,” “punkin head,” “lunk head,” or “dumber than a stump.” 1938 AmSp 13.74 OH, So and so is . . a mutton head, a punkin head, a lunk head. 1941 LANE Map 465 (Fool) 2 infs, NH, Pumpkinhead. 1986 Pederson LAGS Concordance (That fool!) 1 inf, nwLA, Pumpkin heads—people without much intelligence.