goof

American  

[goof] / guf /

verb (used without object)

• goofs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• goofed,
  past participle,  past
• goofing
  present participle

1. to blunder; make an error, misjudgment, etc.

2. to waste or kill time; evade work or responsibility (often followed by off oraround ).

   Exam week is not a time to goof off. We goofed around till train time.

---

verb (used with object)

• goofs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• goofed,
  past participle,  past
• goofing
  present participle

1. to spoil or make a mess of (something); botch; bungle (often followed byup ).

   You really goofed up the job.

noun

• goofs
  plural

1. a foolish or stupid person.

2. a mistake or blunder, especially one due to carelessness.

3. a source of fun or cause for amusement.

   We short-sheeted his bunk just for a goof.

verb phrase

1. goof on to tease, ridicule, or mock; make fun of.

goof British  

/ ɡuːf /

noun

1. a foolish error or mistake

2. a stupid person

---

verb

1. to bungle (something); botch

2. (intr; often foll by about or around) to fool (around); mess (about)

3. (tr) to dope with drugs

4. to waste time; idle

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• goofs
  plural

Participles

• goofing
  present
• goofed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• goof
  simple
• goofs
  simple
• have goofed
  perfect
• has goofed
  perfect
• am goofing
  progressive
• are goofing
  progressive
• is goofing
  progressive
• have been goofing
  perfect progressive
• has been goofing
  perfect progressive

Past

• goofed
  simple
• had goofed
  perfect
• was goofing
  progressive
• were goofing
  progressive
• had been goofing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will goof
  simple
• will have goofed
  perfect
• will be goofing
  progressive
• will have been goofing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of goof

1915–20; apparently variant of obsolete goff dolt < Middle French goffe awkward, stupid

Explanation

A goof is a silly fool. If you can't stop telling jokes, even after your math class has started, your teacher will think you're a goof. There are many alternate words for goof, including dimwit, dummy, and nitwit. In other words, you should only call someone a goof if you mean to insult their intelligence. The mistakes a goof — or anyone — makes can also be called goofs: "I made such a goof when I was mixing this cake batter." Goof is a 1916 American invention, probably influenced by the English dialect goff, "foolish clown."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

goof goofs goofed goofing

Assigning in-class lessons on devices invites kids to rush through them so they can goof off.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

I think pretty early on, we were like, “Let’s goof on Alex for a little while in this conspiracy world.”

From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2026

“It’s a thing about my personality to be silly and goof around.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

"This is reputation management of the highest order," he wrote, criticising the "softest editing" which painted Sir Jacob wrongly as a "harmless gosh-and-golly goof".

From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2024

Part of me always believed that this whole bar mitzvah thing was kind of a goof for him.

From "Linked" by Gordon Korman

Airline fare goofs are rare—Thrifty Traveler has sent 20 mistake fare alerts since 2020.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026

Victory goes to the fastest canine, with penalties for any goofs in clearing the obstacles.

From Seattle Times ● May 14, 2024

By this point, I’ve made countless gardening goofs, big and small, and those mistakes have given me a healthy perspective on our limited power over nature.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 22, 2023

The long-pause humor here is the opposite of the barrage we expect from “Airplane!”-style genre goofs.

From New York Times ● Feb. 17, 2022

“I heard you. Maybe I’m too old to get mad, or maybe what you consider goofs aren’t what / consider goofs—it’s just stuff that happens.”

From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech

Colbert often goofed on his public image with mock outrage over perceived offenses, a carry-over from his long-running shtick on “The Colbert Report.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026

"Ecowas goofed, the Nigerian president also goofed," said Prof Khalifa Dikwa, an academic at the University of Maiduguri and a member of an influential group of elders in northern Nigeria.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2023

You need a paper trail that shows Avianca or GoToGate goofed.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 17, 2023

Of course, Viserys being Viserys, he goofed things up on his way out of the mortal plane, revealing Aegon’s “prince that was promised” vision to Alicent in response to Rhaenyra’s question about it earlier.

From New York Times ● Oct. 9, 2022

And I sang them silently in my head during lunch while the band goofed around.

From "The First Rule of Punk" by Celia C. Pérez

Kalshi, which dragged the hermetic Pete Sampras out for a weird ad, actually had its name on another video goofing on attendees who didn’t know basic stuff about tennis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

That problem-solving begins long before Saturdays, when Smith hones his particular set of skills in sessions that might otherwise look like goofing off.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Geisel lasted less than a year in Oxford, but Jones says "once he's hooked up with Helen" he spent his time "travelling, goofing off and kind of really doing anything but his studies".

From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2026

Older kids and adults — even those who aren't furries — also love some animal-themed goofing off: Consider the mascots associated wity many college sports teams.

From Salon ● May 12, 2025

There was no goofing off, no loud talking like there had been at the start of class on Friday.

From "The Landry News" by Andrew Clements

Related Words

• err
• flub
• screw up