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.
-
a person who has been tricked or deceived into appearing or acting silly or stupid.
to make a fool of someone.
-
an ardent enthusiast who cannot resist an opportunity to indulge an enthusiasm.
He's just a dancing fool.
-
a weak-minded or idiotic person.
verb (used with object)
-
fools,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fooled,
past participle, past
-
fooling
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
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
-
fool away to spend foolishly, as time or money; squander.
to fool away the entire afternoon.
-
fool around (with)
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
-
a person who lacks sense or judgement
-
a person who is made to appear ridiculous
-
(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
-
a wise or sensible person
-
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
-
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
-
foolsimple
-
foolssimple
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have fooledperfect
-
has fooledperfect
-
am foolingprogressive
-
are foolingprogressive
-
is foolingprogressive
-
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:
While Sununu says he’s not at all trying to fool anyone into thinking he’s Chris, multiple people told me they only realized which brother was running when the primary came around in September.
From Slate ● Oct. 29, 2026
“He can fool you with his polish upwards,” the memo notes, adding that Flores has “little people skills, lacks self-awareness and can sometimes exhibit erratic behavior.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
I wasn’t a fool, but I did try to build a life for myself by buying a house.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026
To paraphrase the maxim falsely attributed to Lincoln, you can fool a whole bunch of the people for a hell of a long time, but you can’t fool all of them forever.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
“A Marveller who doesn't love marvelling is worse than a Fewel” Clare let the word draw out so it sounded like fool.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
But Thomas and Erika are no fools, coolly telling off smiling Hitler sympathizers during a tony reception.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
Would that the zealots and fools who keep trying could recognize that simple truth, and stop.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
"You've taken us for fools long enough," read a banner beneath a display depicting BFV officials using a magnet to pull a compass needle towards them.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
She’s also widely known for her many devoted friendships, though she doesn’t suffer fools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
He told them that they were fools, reminded them of things they thought were safely forgotten.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
The unusual illumination even fooled gold miners into thinking morning had arrived, prompting them to prepare breakfast shortly after midnight.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026
Charli had opened with the new album’s “Rock Music,” in which she declares that “the dance floor is dead”; here, her sarcasm fooled precisely nobody.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
A difficult job market appeared to show improvement near the end of summer with a surprisingly big increase in employment, but don’t be fooled: Hiring in the U.S. is still unusually tepid.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
Don't be fooled, though, as she has a wealth of experience of managing relationships under intense public pressure from her girl group days.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
They dropped an apple on a string, or rapped their toes on a headboard, and the resulting knocking sounds fooled their mother into thinking it was a spirit.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
“A lot of disrupters don’t even have targets, they’re just fooling around,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Then there's this, he said: AI models are getting better and better at detecting when they are being tested and might behave differently when they are actually deployed, fooling their masters.
From Barron's ● Oct. 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
“Then what is it like? What are we? Just Fresh Prince and fooling around?”
From "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
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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.
