rocket scientist
9
4.3
- noun
- /ˈrɑkɪt ˈsaɪəntɪst/
- Informal
:
genio
- You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be a cook.
You understand what I'm saying it don't take a rocket scientist.
- You understand what I'm saying it don't take a rocket scientist.
- There are practical ways to approach transmedia strategy that aren't that hard, that that aren't, you know, rocket scientist type of things to figure out.
Examples
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You are such a rocket scientist.
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What the hell are you, a rocket scientist?
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No one here is smart enough, including the rocket scientist.
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And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to explain that to us.
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"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what is wrong.
Fiction book (1991) -
You don't need to be a rocket scientist for that one, do you?
Blog text (28) -
It does not take a rocket scientist to answer this question.
Academic text (2009) -
I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out what would happen if you privatized the police.
Blog text (5) -
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the truth.
Blog text (7) -
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand how to assemble the furniture.
Synonyms
252
4.9
A person with very strong intelligence or creative skill
31
8.2
A person who is very smart and good at solving hard problems
26
8.9
A person with very great knowledge or skill in one subject
A joking name for a person who is very skilled
Antonyms
How Intelligent
Surface Forms
Morphology
rocket + scientist
The literal meaning — a scientist who works on rockets — is directly compositional from 'rocket' + 'scientist', so learners will grasp that basic sense. However, the common idiomatic use (e.g. "you don't need to be a rocket scientist") extends this to mean 'very intelligent' or 'requires special expertise' in a metaphorical/ironic way, which is not fully predictable from the parts and may require exposure to the idiom.
Etymology
Rocket scientist uses the image of a rocket and a scientist to show very high skill, because building rockets looks very hard. So when people say 'you don't have to be a rocket scientist', they mean 'you don't need to be very clever' or that something is not difficult.