fool

From Middle English fole (“fool”), from Old French fol (cf. modern French fou (“mad”)) from Latin follis.[1]. Doublet of follis.

• IPA^(key): /fuːl/

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• Rhymes: -uːl

fool (plural fools)

1. (derogatory) A person with poor judgment or little intelligence.

   You were a fool to cross that busy road without looking.

   The village fool threw his own shoes down the well.

   • 2008, Adele, Crazy for You

     And every time I'm meant to be acting sensible
     You drift into my head
     And turn me into a crumbling fool.

   • 1895, Rudyard Kipling, If—

     If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
     ⁠Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge Chapter 13

     ‘If I coloured at all, Mr Edward,’ said Joe, ‘which I didn’t know I did, it was to think I should have been such a fool as ever to have any hope of her. She’s as far out of my reach as—as Heaven is.’

   • 1743, Benjamin Franklin

     Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.

2. (historical) A jester; a person whose role was to entertain a sovereign and the court (or lower personages).
   • 1896, Frederick Peterson IN Popular Science Monthly Volume 50 December 1896 , Idiots Savants

     This court fool could say bright things on occasion, but his main use to the ladies and lords of the palace was to serve as victim to practical jokes, cruel, coarse, and vulgar enough to be appreciated perhaps in the Bowery.

3. (informal) Someone who derives pleasure from something specified.
   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

     Can they think me […] their fool or jester?

   • 1975, Foghat, "Fool for the City" (song), Fool for the City (album):

     I'm a fool for the city.

4. (slang) Buddy, dude, person.
5. (cooking) A type of dessert made of puréed fruit and custard or cream.

   an apricot fool; a gooseberry fool

6. (often capitalized, Fool) A particular card in a tarot deck, representing a jester.

• (person with poor judgment): See also Thesaurus:fool
• (person who entertained a sovereign): jester, joker
• (person who talks a lot of nonsense): gobshite

fool (third-person singular simple present fools, present participle fooling, simple past and past participle fooled)

1. To trick; to deceive
   • 1918, Florence White Williams, The Little Red Hen

     She bit it gently and found that it resembled a worm in no way whatsoever as to taste although because it was long and slender, a Little Red Hen might easily be fooled by its appearance.

2. To act in an idiotic manner; to act foolishly
   • 1681/1682, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar

     Is this a time for fooling?

   • 1972, Judy Blume, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (page 56)

     She's always complaining that she got stuck with the worst possible committee. And that me and Jimmy fool more than we work.

• See also Thesaurus:deceive

fool (comparative fooler or more fool, superlative foolest or most fool)

1. (informal) foolish
   • 2011, Gayle Kaye, Sheriff Takes a Bride

     That was a fool thing to do. You could have gotten yourself shot

   • 1909, Gene Stratton-Porter, A Girl of the Limberlost

     Of all the fool, fruitless jobs, making anything of a creature that begins by deceiving her, is the foolest a sane woman ever undertook.

• Olof, floo, loof

From Old French fol (French fou (“mad”)) from Latin follis.[1]

fool

1. Alternative form of fole (“fool”)

fool

1. Alternative form of fole (“foolish”)

From Old English fola.

fool

1. Alternative form of fole (“foal”)

From Sanskrit पागल (pāgala)

fool

1. mad man