fool
1 Americannoun
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a silly or stupid person; a person who lacks judgment or sense.
- Synonyms:
- sap, saphead, booby, nincompoop, ninny, dunderhead, ignoramus, numbskull, blockhead, dunce, dolt, simpleton
- Antonyms:
- genius
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a professional jester, formerly kept by a person of royal or noble rank for amusement.
the court fool.
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a person who has been tricked or deceived into appearing or acting silly or stupid.
to make a fool of someone.
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an ardent enthusiast who cannot resist an opportunity to indulge an enthusiasm.
He's just a dancing fool.
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a weak-minded or idiotic person.
verb (used with object)
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fools,
present (3rd person singular)
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fooled,
past participle, past
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fooling
present participle
verb (used without object)
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fools,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fooled,
past participle, past
-
fooling
present participle
-
to act like a fool; joke; play.
-
to jest; pretend; make believe.
I was only fooling.
verb phrase
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fool away to spend foolishly, as time or money; squander.
to fool away the entire afternoon.
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fool around (with)
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to putter aimlessly; waste time.
She fooled around all through school.
I fooled around with painting for a bit, but never got anywhere with it.
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Also fool with to handle or play with idly or carelessly.
She was hurt while fooling around with a loaded gun.
It's unkind to fool with someone's affections.
-
to flirt or have casual sexual encounters.
You should know better than to fool around with someone you work with.
They're just fooling around–I don't think the relationship is going to go anywhere.
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to be sexually promiscuous, especially to engage in adultery.
He's out fooling around while she's at home sick with the flu.
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idioms
noun
noun
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a person who lacks sense or judgement
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a person who is made to appear ridiculous
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(formerly) a professional jester living in a royal or noble household
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obsolete an idiot or imbecile
the village fool
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to play the fool or behave irritatingly
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a wise or sensible person
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to deliberately act foolishly; indulge in buffoonery
verb
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(tr) to deceive (someone), esp in order to make him or her look ridiculous
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informal (intr; foll by with, around with, or about with) to act or play (with) irresponsibly or aimlessly
to fool around with a woman
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(intr) to speak or act in a playful, teasing, or jesting manner
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to squander; fritter
he fooled away a fortune
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to move or proceed in a leisurely way
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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foolsimple
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foolssimple
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have fooledperfect
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has fooledperfect
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am foolingprogressive
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are foolingprogressive
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is foolingprogressive
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have been foolingperfect progressive
-
has been foolingperfect progressive
Past
-
fooledsimple
-
had fooledperfect
-
was foolingprogressive
-
were foolingprogressive
-
had been foolingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fool1
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English fol, fool, from Old French fol, from Latin follis “bellows, bag”; cf. follis
Origin of fool2
First recorded in 1590–1600; probably special use of fool 1; cf. trifle ( def. ) (in the sense “a dessert consisting of custard and cake”
Explanation
In the Middle Ages, a fool was a clown or jester. Today, fools are simply silly people who clown around or lack common sense. The original fools were clowns hired by the king for entertainment. They were actually witty and smart, but today's fools are not. When you call someone a fool, you either mean he's gullible or just a run-of-the-mill idiot. To fool also means to play a trick or hoax on someone, and fooling around is carelessly spending time on something silly. If someone doesn't believe something you said, you might defend yourself by saying, "I'm not fooling!"
Vocabulary lists containing fool
April Vocabulary Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Eliza’s creator aimed to fool people into seeing a machine as humanlike then show them how they’d been fooled.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Meyer wrote the script a decade ago about her friendship with producer Maggie McLean, but no doubt she knows better than anyone how much the smart and sensible-projecting Stewart delights in acting the fool.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
If Blanche does end up playing Cassidy for a fool, at least we know the senator won’t spend too much time looking back.
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026
“You can’t fool the bond. You can’t do it,” Cabana said, referring to the bond market, an important signal of how investors view the health of the economy.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
I guess I need to resign myself to failing my history project and making a fool of myself in front of the class.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
She’s also widely known for her many devoted friendships, though she doesn’t suffer fools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
Such reasoning can become textbook Greater Fool Theory — investors paying foolish prices with the expectation that greater fools than they will pay even higher prices.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 6, 2026
Time and time again on “Parks and Recreation,” the intrepid and plucky Leslie cut through legislative red tape and won over her enemies, and the ones she couldn’t persuade always looked like cold-hearted fools.
From Salon ● Jan. 16, 2026
Reading the toplofty Mr. Grantham, one can almost hear the voice of Shakespeare’s Puck—“What fools these mortals be.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
"Fearing, you climbed the Mountain. Fearing, you faced its dangers. And fearing, you went on. That is real bravery. Rowan. Only fools do not fear. Sheba knew that. Sheba knew everything, all along."
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
He aimed to fool people into seeing a machine as humanlike—now sometimes called the Eliza effect—and then show them how they’d been fooled.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Because being fooled once is a shame; being fooled twice — that’s moronic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
A Fury lookalike briefly fooled reporters when he stepped out of a taxi, while Fury's manager Spencer Brown insisted the 'Gypsy King' would be "there in spirit".
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
Federal investigators discovered that Rush appears to have successfully fooled America’s pre-eminent spy agency for decades with a pack of easily discoverable lies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
He made the klaxon again a little later, and it fooled me the second time.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
“The assertion that the U.S. Attorney’s Office was snookered by the Department of the Interior is not fooling anybody,” Eisen said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
It’s a disguise “Obsession” wears so well that it’s fooling people into thinking this perfectly adequate film marks the arrival of a new horror classic.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2026
Are we fooling ourselves to think our taxes matter to our moral responsibility?
From Slate ● May 11, 2026
So Théodore started an account on X, formerly known as Twitter, called "Insane AI Slop" and started calling out and poking fun at the content he came across that was fooling people.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2026
The moss bandage on my arm is soaked and there’s no use fooling myself.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
