English

Alternative forms

• moon-calf

Noun

mooncalf ‎(plural mooncalves)

1. (now rare) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception. [from 16th c.]
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 2

     Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How cam'st thou / to be the siege of this moon-calf? Can he vent Trinculos?

2. A poorly-conceived idea or plan. [from 17th c.]
3. A dreamer, someone absent-minded or distracted; a fool, simpleton. [from 17th c.]
   • 1902, John Kendrick Bangs, Olympian Nights, ch. 10:

     "[Y]ou're a jobbernowl and a doodle, a maundering mooncalf and a blockheaded numps, a gaby and a loon; you're a Hatter!" I shrieked the last epithet.

   • c. 1950, Ogden Nash, "Come On In, The Senility Is Fine":

     But I can think of no one but a mooncalf or a gaby

     Who would trust their own child to raise a baby.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 463:

     He slipped it softly onto her unresisting finger and, like the unwise moncalf he was, kissed it.

Related terms

• moon
• moonstruck
• moonbat