Green’s Dictionary of Slang

chowder-head n.

(US) a fool, a stupid person.

1819		W. Scott Familiar Letters II 23 Mar. 39: The Duke wants me to sit for a picture [...] and names Raeburn. I should like much better to sit to Allan, but it is a sin to take up his time with chowderpates.
1833		J. Neal Down-Easters I 119: That’s our Amos! if taint I’m a chowderhead.
1846		Durivage & Burnham Stray Subjects (1848) 49: ‘O! you darn’d old chowder-head!’ shrieked the insensate young man.
1857		White Cloud Kansas (KS) 25 June 1/3: Joe, you chowderhead, you blundering numskull!
1867		Staunton Spectator (VA) 5 Nov. 4/1: ‘What looks the most like half a cheese?’ [...] ‘Why, you infernal chowder-heads, it’s the other half’.
1872		Leavenworth Wkly Times (KS) 13 June 1/3: We cannot take lunk-heads, chowder-heads and cabbage-heads as figure heads this campaign.
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 100: Chowderhead, a dunce.
1904		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:vi 424: chowder-head, n. A stupid person.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 205: chowder-head, a stupid person. ‘Math class is no place for chowder-heads’.
c.1930		(ref. to 1898) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 274: A lot were knotheads, chowder-brains, who had to take their shoes off to add up anything over ten.
1932		F.S. Fitzgerald letter 2 Aug. in Letters (1964) 498: I do not destinate to signify that you were a wiseacre, witling, dizzard, chowderhead.
1946		J. Adams From Gags to Riches 255: Okay, chowderhead, who is it?
1960		G. Marx letter 21 Mar. Groucho Letters (1967) 116: With the current administration largely composed of ineffectual chowder-heads.
1967		(con. 1950s) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 66: Hey, you two chowderheads.
1982–2004		(con. 1978) G. Sculatti Catalog of Cool 🌐 puppethead (noun): Square person, esp. one who lets others pull his or her taste strings. [...] Synonyms [...] cementhead, chowder-head.
2004		T. Dorsey Cadillac Beach 217: Get the hell out of my way, ya chowderhead.
2006		www.wonkette.com 26 Jan. 🌐 Margaret Spellings’ daughters call her ‘an anal-retentive chowderhead.’.

In derivatives

chowder-headed (adj.)

foolish.

1819		W. Scott letter 15 Apr. in Lockhart Life (1896) 394/1: I hesitate a little about Raeburn... [he] has twice already made a very chowder-headed person of me .
1851		Melville Moby Dick 73: What’s that stultifying saying about chowder-headed people?
1866		‘Mark Twain’ ‘Travelling Show’ in Screamers (1875) 150: That lets you out, you know, you chowder-headed old clam!
1897		Times (Wash., DC) 8 Dec. 4/3: This is the most chowder-headed Administration of history.
1935		(ref. to 1870) Dundee Courier 6 Apr. 6/3: Have we lost the art of slang? [...] It did not pay to be stupid in those days [...] you had ‘apartments to let’ or [you were] chuckle-headed, buffle-headed, cabbage-headed [and] chowder-headed.
1952		W.D. Overholser Fabulous Gunman 126: Listen, you chowder-headed idiot.
2006		posting at www.liberalavenger.com 1 Apr. 🌐 As usual, you’ve taken the most chowderheaded possible approach to an issue.