smatterer

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If the question were, What is the best mode of securing good government in Europe? the merest smatterer in politics would answer, representative institutions.

From Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches — Volume 4 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

But in geometry and rational arithmetic he is a smatterer, though expert at computation; at the board he is a trained man of business.

From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II by Smith, David Eugene

Like Mr. Stevenson's smatterer, who was asked, "What would be the result of putting a pound of potassium in a pot of porter?"

From Adventures in Criticism by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir

In history he was the merest smatterer, though it was his favorite reading, and he was always talking about Sparta, Athens, and Rome.

From Famous Americans of Recent Times by Parton, James

To the philosophers at Athens he appears as the preacher of a new philosophy, and they think him a "smatterer" in such subjects.

From Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul by Tucker, T. G. (Thomas George)