goof
Americanverb (used without object)
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goofs,
present (3rd person singular)
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goofed,
past participle, past
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goofing
present participle
-
to blunder; make an error, misjudgment, etc.
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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)
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goofs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
goofed,
past participle, past
-
goofing
present participle
noun
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goofs
plural
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a foolish or stupid person.
-
a mistake or blunder, especially one due to carelessness.
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a source of fun or cause for amusement.
We short-sheeted his bunk just for a goof.
verb phrase
noun
-
a foolish error or mistake
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a stupid person
verb
-
to bungle (something); botch
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(intr; often foll by about or around) to fool (around); mess (about)
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(tr) to dope with drugs
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to waste time; idle
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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goofsimple
-
goofssimple
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have goofedperfect
-
has goofedperfect
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am goofingprogressive
-
are goofingprogressive
-
is goofingprogressive
-
have been goofingperfect progressive
-
has been goofingperfect progressive
Past
-
goofedsimple
-
had goofedperfect
-
was goofingprogressive
-
were goofingprogressive
-
had been goofingperfect progressive
Future
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
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:
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
“AI becomes seductive when it tells you you’re the smartest person because you caught a mistake,” says Schwimmer, who was lauded by ChatGPT for catching the aforementioned travel goof.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2025
"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
“What do you think we do? We goof around.”
From "A Step from Heaven" by An Na
He goofs off with the ball kids, who are closer in age to him than any of the tennis pooh-bahs in charge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2025
Victory goes to the fastest canine, with penalties for any goofs in clearing the obstacles.
From Seattle Times ● May 14, 2024
But if you’re cleaning up his goofs, he has no incentive to do better.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 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
In down times, they played card games and goofed around, singing patriotic songs, recording videos and taking selfies.
From New York Times ● Oct. 29, 2023
"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
Kyle goofed up and said one of the forbidden words: “Ketchup!”
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
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
Eileen Shiffrin, Mikaela’s mother and original skiing Obi-Wan, says she knows it’s going to be a good day when her daughter is goofing off and chatty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 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
No goofing around like he usually does either.
From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes
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