quiz kid

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quiz kid

A person, usually a child or young adult, who is exceptionally knowledgeable or intelligent, especially in trivia. He actually earned quite a lot of money as a quiz kid on various trivia gameshows when he was younger. We should invite Sarah to the pub quiz—she's something of a quiz kid when it comes to sports.
See also: kid, quiz
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

Quiz Kid

A very smart youngster. A popular radio show during the 1940s and '50s and later a television series, Quiz Kids featured a panel of five youngsters, none over the age of sixteen, with extraordinarily high IQs. They answered difficult questions on a wide range of topics that were submitted by listeners. Among the panelists who went on to bigger and better things was James Watson, the Nobel scientist who codiscovered DNA. People used the phrase as both a compliment (“My son is so smart, he could be a Quiz Kid”) and sarcasm (“You flunked another test?—nice going, Quiz Kid!”).
See also: kid, quiz
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price
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References in periodicals archive ?
In their new role, the "Quiz Kids" became known as "Whiz Kids," a moniker previously associated with the University of Illinois' basketball team.
Apparently Joel Kupperman, the subject of son Michael Kupperman's new comic (as I gather graphic novels and memoirs are now being called), was one of the most famous people in the United States from roughly 1943 to 1954, the years when he starred on radio and then TV as one of the Quiz Kids. He was a math prodigy, or at least a fast-computation prodigy; he was extremely good at solving word problems, mailed in by the audience, but eventually he abandoned the field and became a philosophy professor.
It tells the story of the author's father, Joel Kupperman, who became famous as one of the stars of the 1940s and '50s radio and television show "Quiz Kids." The elder Kupperman subsequently became an author and professor of philosophy, but he retreated from public life as an adult.
Quiz kids; the radio program with the smartest children in America, 1940-1953.
In this historical case study, writer and advertiser Gardner discusses the radio program Quiz Kids, with its remarkably long run from 1940-53, and its cultural influence.
The specific needs of the gifted had not even been fully conceived or set forth by Lewis Terman and Leta Hollingworth when these early prodi The Quiz Kids radio program debuted on June 28, 1940, and at the height of its popularity had 10 million listeners.
The Quiz Kids were predominantly White children from a variety of home backgrounds in and around the Chicago area.
She was awarded a Certificate of Honor in the Quiz Kids Best Teacher Contest, and was also honored by the Massachusetts Senate for her dedication to the Students of Southbridge.
When TJ and Seymour, master fact gatherers and ace cat wranglers, are asked to join their school's Quiz Kids team, Seymour is keen (as usual), but TJ has his doubts.
The fourth and possibly the best yet in Hazel Hutchins' engaging series, TJ and the Quiz Kids once again brings together TJ, his two cats and his excitable friend Seymour.
TJ is baffled when the vice-principal asks him to be the fourth member of the school's Quiz Kids team--after all, he considers himself to be "incredibly average" and feels Seymour, an insatiable collector of oddball facts, would be a more knowledgeable player.
The younger of the quiz kids, Stanley (Jeremy Blackman), even asks for meteorological instruments (and has been studying a book by Charles Fort, chronicler of unexplained downpours).
By age 14, Brown, who spoke four languages, was a member of the hit radio show "The Quiz Kids." In 1952, she co-starred on Broadway with Tom Ewell in the hot comedy "Seven Year Itch," a role played in the film version by Marilyn Monroe.
Later came Pot O'Gold, The Treasure Chest, the appealing Quiz Kids, Truth and Consequences, People are Funny, Take It or Leave It, the Kay Kyser Kollege of Musical Knowledge, Double or Nothing, Can You Top This, and Break the Bank.
Education and culture were valued by his grandfather especially, and young John showed great intelligence and talent from the start--he appeared on the national radio show "Quiz Kids" at age 14--and knew from an early age that he was meant for something more far-reaching than the family business.