tomfool
Americannoun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tomfool
1325–75; Middle English Thome fole Tom the fool
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.
Their own father, an amiable giant nearly seven foot tall, lacked the drive and ambition of his sons, and he refused to support this tomfool idea.
From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl
![]()
But not now; he was done with tomfool nights.
From The Place of Honeymoons by Arthur Ignatius Keller
Will you put that tomfool thing away, sir!
From Sappers and Miners The Flood beneath the Sea by Hal Hurst
Arrangements were made to secure me two hours alone with the prisoner, so that nothing seemed to be wanting to this tomfool business.
From The Autobiography of a Quack and the Case of George Dedlow by S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell
Then the father swore “he was not going to have his son make a tomfool of hisself to please that there parson.”
From The Carbonels by W. S. (Walter S.) Stacey
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.