Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a fool, an incompetent.

1651		T. Randolph Hey for Honesty II i: And you, goodman Clodpole, old snail with a slimy nose.
1706		[T. Betterton] Amorous Widow [Dramatis Personæ] Clodpole. A simple Country Fellow .
1714		J. Gay Shepherd’s Week 1st Pastoral 4: Lo yonder Cloddipole, the blithsome Swain, The wisest Lout of all the neighbouring Plain.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Clod Pate. A dull, heavy booby. Clod Pole. The same.
1798		Sporting Mag. Dec. XIII 173/1: Induc’d a clodpole to apply, / Commended by a neighbour.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) II 182: A sort of clodpole, with a portmanteau across his shoulders, knocked at the door.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 244: Mr. Syntax, who inclined a little to the clodpole, was gravelled for some moments.
1815		Mysterious Murder III ii: My name’s Clodpole, I was a farmer.
1825		Egan Life of an Actor 132: jemmy blossom laughed heartily at Clodpole’s remarks.
1830		W.H. Williams Wreck II i: You pauper-fed, ass-headed, bull-faced beadle, by what right or title do you and your gang of clodpoles intrude yourselves here?
1839		T. Hood ‘Rural Felicity’ Works (1862) IV 291: If it wasn’t for clodpoles of carpenters that put up such crooked stiles.
1841		W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 52: These clodpoles here think there’s as little end to their knowledge of flesh, as there is to the flesh that clogs their knowledge.
1849		Northern Star 10 Nov. 1/1: The theretofore satisfied clodpole, and his family, were sold like livestock in the market, to the speculators in their labour.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime 194: Clodpole, oaf, grub, ragamuffin!
1854		Mashville Union (TN) 2 July 1/3: A visitor [...] questioned a shock-headed clodpole, as to the merits of the pastor.
1862		Gallipolis Jrnl (OH) 28 Aug. 1/3: You were hasty in assuming that all who live in the country are clodpoles.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 112/2: Duz thau reemembir a certain playce i’ Brighton [...] an’ duz thau reemembir kaulin sum wan a Yorksheer clodpole, eh?
1869		Man about Town 13 Nov. 79/2: The reply which I made to Master Cloddipole’s remark was, inquisitively put.
1877		Canton Advocate (SD) 24 Oct. 3/1: See, Clodpole mounts the wagon-horse sidewise.
1880		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 6 Mar. 7/2: At the door were gathered not less than fifty or sixty village clodpoles.
1890		Burlington Wkly Free Press (VT) 17 Jan. 10/5: A lourdeau [...] is as we might say a bumpkin, a clown, a clodpole.
1902		Richmond Dispatch (VA) 12 Oct. 13/3: I turned to a big clodpoll who wore a celluloid pictuire of his girl on his coat-lapel.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 13: When he has had a dekko at the mess his dog has made of my leg, I’ll be flummoxed if the clodpole doesn’t laugh.
1953		A. Buckeridge Jennings’ Diary 11: Don’t be such a clodpoll, Darbi!
1968		A. Buckeridge Jennings in Particular (1988) 35: But we haven’t got any scissors, you clueless clodpoll.
1976		E. Dahlberg Olive of Minerva 102: How is it a man of ninety-two [...] is spiteful, salacious, and ever ready to cuckold a clodpole miscalled a husband.