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.

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)

I remember, when I first saw thee, my mind laboured with a strong puzzle, whether I should put thee down for a great fool, or a smatterer in wit.

From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 7 by Richardson, Samuel

Now Chilperic must have learned to speak Latin like other kings of the Franks, and was a smatterer in several kinds of literature.

From View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 by Hallam, Henry

Coke commented upon them sentence by sentence, and even now the merest smatterer in English law must profess some knowledge of Quia emptores and De donis conditionalibus.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various

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