Dumbledore

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈdÊŒm.bÉ™l.dɔː/
• US IPA: /ˈdÊŒm.bÉ™l.dɔːr/

Alternative forms

• dumble-dor
• dumbledor

Origin

Compound of dumble("similar to bumble") + dor("a buzzing flying insect").

Full definition of dumbledore

Noun

1. (dialectal) A bumblebee.
• 1875 Charlotte M Yonge, The Daisy Chain:Those slopes of fresh turf, embroidered with every minute blossom of the moor — thyme, birdsfoot, eyebright, and dwarf purple thistle, buzzed and hummed over by busy, black-tailed, yellow-banded dumbledores.
• 1899 Thomas Hardy, An August Midnight:A shaded lamp and a waving blind,
  And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:
  On this scene enter – winged, horned, and spined –
  A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore —
• 1970 May 21, Evening Telegram, page 3:Now and then a dumbledore or ‘busy bee’ as they are called by some, propelled itself across our path, they being extremely large and heavy this year.
• 1987 Seán Virgo, Selakhi, Exile Editions, Ltd., page 20:A dumbledore, lured from the plantation, lies on its back, leaping and churning upon Seth’s bright pages.
2. (dialectal) A beetle, typically a cockchafer or dung beetle.
• 1964 Transactions of the American Philological Association, American Philological Association, Ginn & Co., page 267:Others may need to be informed that a blastnashun straddlebob is a dumbledore, that is to say, a polyonymous lamellicorn coleopter, cald also a dorbeetle, a dorbug, a maybeetle, a maybug or a cockchafer, a Mflolontha rulgaris.
3. (dialectal) A dandelion.
• 1975 Peter J. Scott, Edible Fruits and Herbs of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Memorial University Oxen Pond Botanical Park, page 39:The Dandelion has a number of common names in Newfoundland. These include Dumbledore, Faceclock, and Piss-a-beds.
4. (slang) A blundering person.
• 1872 Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree, chapter 4:“Miserable dumbledores!”
  “Right, William, and so they be—miserable dumbledores!” said the choir with unanimity.