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.
This law, abounding with contradictions which every smatterer in political philosophy can detect, did what a law framed by the utmost skill of the greatest masters of political philosophy might have failed to do.
From The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 3 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
They sent everybody to school, and, though their educations were principally those of smatterers, it is an advantage to be even a smatterer among the very ignorant.
From The Chainbearer Or, The Littlepage Manuscripts by Cooper, James Fenimore
But when a young smatterer uses them to advertise his calling acquaintance with a language, he is but proclaiming his own lack of good taste.
From English: Composition and Literature by Webster, W. F. (William Franklin)
The veriest smatterer in political economy cannot but perceive the ruinous tendency of such a measure.
From Thoughts on African Colonization by Garrison, William Lloyd
When yet if you consult historians, you'll find no princes more pestilent to the commonwealth than where the empire has fallen to some smatterer in philosophy or one given to letters.
From The Praise of Folly by Wilson, John
