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tomfool

[tom-fool]
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noun
  1. a grossly foolish or stupid person; a silly fool.
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adjective
  1. being or characteristic of a tomfool.
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Origin of tomfool

1325–75; Middle English Thome fole Tom the fool
Related formstom·fool·ish, adjectivetom·fool·ish·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for tomfool

Historical Examples

  • That tomfool letter we sent ruined whatever chance I had left.

    Cabbages and Kings

    O. Henry

  • Then aloud in Spanish: "What's the good of all that tomfool business?"

    Lone Pine

    R. B. (Richard Baxter) Townshend

  • Go and fetch the money and the tomfool paint-box thing that you say he had it in.

    "Carrots:"

    Mrs. Molesworth

  • And think of that tomfool of a Tommy-Bill-beg sending the man to me.

  • "I'll stop all night in your tomfool wood and up your tomfool trees," he said.

    The Trees of Pride

    G.K. Chesterton

British Dictionary definitions for tomfool

tomfool

noun
    1. a fool
    2. (as modifier)tomfool ideas
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Derived Formstomfoolish, adjectivetomfoolishness, noun

Word Origin

C14: from tom 1 + fool 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tomfool

n.

"buffoon, clown," 1640s, from Middle English Thom Foole, personification of a mentally deficient man (mid-14c.), see Tom + fool (n.).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper