fop
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fop
1400–50; late Middle English foppe, fop; akin to fob 2
Explanation
If you know someone who's obsessed with how he looks and what he's wearing, you can call him a fop. If you're a fop, you make sure you're always well dressed. A fop spends hours grooming himself in front of the mirror and spends a lot of money on nice clothes. You might also call him a "dandy" or a "clotheshorse." The word fop meant "foolish person" in the mid-1600s and was probably related to the now-obsolete verb of the same name, meaning "make a fool of." By 1670, a fop was a fool who was focused specifically on his clothing.
Vocabulary lists containing fop
Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 3
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The Shakespeare Stealer
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Americanah
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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.
Frederick was a modestly talented flutist and composer, although here, as written by Mr. Cotton and played by Stephen Hagan, he’s mostly a full-time amoral tyrant and part-time self-important fop.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
It led to him being described as a "red-socked fop" by Labour's former deputy prime minister John Prescott.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2022
The arch verse no less than the ruffs and pantaloons too often turn Cyrano into a preening fop, which is exactly what he isn’t.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2022
The Big 12 was next with four teams, though it marked the second straight week the league didn't have at least one team in the fop five.
From Fox News ● Feb. 7, 2022
The frump and the fop, they looked, but they were something more than that.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
