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)
-
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.
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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.
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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
-
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
-
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
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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:
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
In such ruses, fraudsters fool people with malicious software, phishing emails or tweaked digital addresses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Shant said Thompson had made a "concerted attempt to conceal" what he had done, and "set about creating a false scene to fool the police".
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
She says he used to sell them to the feedstore, to fool people’s chickens into laying.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
One AI lab insider sniffed: “We would be fools reacting to Karpian theatrics; he does well talking his own book.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
“We as carbon-based fools will spend our money empathizing and caring about silicon-based creations,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
That may have been outré to a middle and high-schooler trying to be cool, but at some point post-college, the Chili Peppers became synonymous with sweaty fools passing out in strip mall parking lots.
From Salon ● Apr. 4, 2026
Supposed experts have been made to look like fools.
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2026
“Michael Taylor, let me see. Well regarded...fair, thorough...doesn't suffer fools gladly...he's put in a good word or two for me at timely moments, for which I'm eternally grateful...that do you?”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Because being fooled once is a shame; being fooled twice — that’s moronic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
LISBON—The agent manning the passport control line warned me not to be fooled by the mercifully short line that greeted me upon arrival at Portugal’s Lisbon International Airport on the last Friday in July.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
She told Bush: "You fooled a lot of people in Hull with your mild manner, when in fact you are a cruel conman. You use people's grief to fund your lifestyle."
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
It’s usually used to suggest traders may be fooled by a relatively small retracement of a big market dive.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
“Max isn’t going to be fooled by whatnots anymore,” Dad said.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Are we fooling ourselves to think our taxes matter to our moral responsibility?
From Slate ● May 11, 2026
“We can delude ourselves for a while that this is not a real cost, but we’re only fooling ourselves at the end of the day,” he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 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
Vance is fooling himself if he thinks the foundation for electoral success is the sea of bitter online men who blame feminism for all their personal problems.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2025
Sometimes what appears to be a leaf or stick in the rain forest is really an insect, fooling a would-be predator by blending in with its surroundings.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
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.
