What does FOOL mean?

Definitions for FOOL
fulfool

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word FOOL.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. fool, sap, saphead, muggins, tomfoolnoun

    a person who lacks good judgment

  2. chump, fool, gull, mark, patsy, fall guy, sucker, soft touch, mugnoun

    a person who is gullible and easy to take advantage of

  3. jester, fool, motley foolverb

    a professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the Middle Ages

  4. fool, gull, befoolverb

    make a fool or dupe of

  5. fritter, frivol away, dissipate, shoot, fritter away, fool, fool awayverb

    spend frivolously and unwisely

    "Fritter away one's inheritance"

  6. gull, dupe, slang, befool, cod, fool, put on, take in, put one over, put one acrossverb

    fool or hoax

    "The immigrant was duped because he trusted everyone"; "You can't fool me!"

  7. horse around, arse around, fool around, foolverb

    indulge in horseplay

    "Enough horsing around--let's get back to work!"; "The bored children were fooling about"

GCIDE

  1. Foolverb

    To waste time in unproductive activity; to spend time in idle sport or mirth; to trifle; to toy.

Wiktionary

  1. foolnoun

    A person with poor judgment or little intelligence.

  2. foolnoun

    A jester; a person whose role was to entertain a sovereign and the court (or lower personages).

  3. foolnoun

    Someone who very much likes something specified.

  4. foolnoun

    A type of dessert made of puréed fruit and custard or cream.

  5. foolnoun

    A particular card in a tarot deck.

  6. foolverb

    To trick; to make a fool of someone.

  7. Etymology: See English fool.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. FOOLnoun

    Etymology: ffol, Welsh; fol, Islandick; fol, French.

    Do’st thou call me fool, boy?
    —— All thy other titles thou hast given away that thou wast born with. William Shakespeare, King Lear.

    The fool multitude, that chuse by show,
    Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach,
    Which pry not to the interior. William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice.

    It may be asked, whether the eldest son, being a fool, shall inherit paternal power before the younger, a wise man. John Locke.

    He thanks his stars he was not born a fool. Alexander Pope.

    The fool hath said in his heart there is no God. Ps. xiv. 1.

    To be thought knowing, you must first put the fool upon all mankind. John Dryden, Juvenal, Preface.

    Where’s my knave, my fool? Go you, and call my fool hither. William Shakespeare, King Lear.

    I scorn, although their drudge, to be their fool or jester. John Milton.

    If this disguise sit not naturally on so grave a person, yet it may become him better than that fool’s coat. John Denham.

    I returning where I left his armour, found another instead thereof, and armed myself therein to play the fool. Philip Sidney.

    Well, thus we play the fools with the time,
    And the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds
    And mock us. William Shakespeare, Henry IV. p. ii.

    Is it worth the name of freedom to be at liberty to play the fool, and draw shame and misery upon a man’s self? John Locke.

    ’Twere as good a deed as to drink when a man’s a-hungry, to challenge him to the field, and then to break promise with him, and make a fool of him. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night.

  2. To Foolverb

    And shall it in more shame be further spoken,
    That you are fool’d, discarded, and shook off? William Shakespeare, H. IV.

    If it be you that stir these daughters hearts
    Against their father, fool me not so much
    To bear it tamely. William Shakespeare, King Lear.

    When I am read, thou feign’st a weak applause,
    As if thou wert my friend, but lackest a cause:
    This but thy judgment fools; the other way
    Would both thy folly and thy spite betray. Ben Jonson.

    Him over-weaning
    To over-reach; but with the serpent meeting,
    Fool’d and beguil’d. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. x.

    If men loved to be deceived and fooled about their spiritual estate, they cannot take a surer course than by taking their neighbour’s word for that, which can be known only from their own heart. Robert South, Sermons.

    When I consider life, ’tis all a cheat;
    For fool’d with hope, men favour the deceit.
    I’m tir’d with waiting for this chemick gold,
    Which fools us young, and beggars us when old. Dryden.

    I would advise this blinded set of men not to give credit to those, by whom they have been so often fooled and imposed upon. Joseph Addison, Freeholder, №. 7.

    It were an handsome plot,
    But full of difficulties, and uncertain;
    And he’s so fool’d with downright honesty,
    He’ll ne’er believe it. John Denham, Sophy.

    A long and eternal adieu to all unlawful pleasures: I will no longer be fooled or imposed upon by them. Edmund Calamy, Serm.

    A boor of Holland, whose cares of growing still richer and richer, perhaps fool him so far as to make him enjoy less in his riches than others in poverty. William Temple.

  3. To Foolverb

    To trifle; to toy; to play; to idle; to sport.

    Etymology: from the noun.

    I, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing to you; so you may continue and laugh at nothing still. William Shakespeare, Tempest.

    Fool not; for all may have,
    If they dare try, a glorious life, a grave. George Herbert.

    If you have the luck to be court-fools, those that have either wit or honesty, you may fool withal, and spare not. John Denham.

    It must be an industrious youth that provides against age; and he that fools away the one, must either beg or starve in the other. Roger L'Estrange.

    He must be happy that knows the true measures of fooling. Roger L'Estrange, Fable 74.

    Is this a time for fooling? John Dryden, Spanish Fryar.

Wikipedia

  1. fool

    Léon-Mba International Airport (IATA: LBV, ICAO: FOOL) is an airport situated in Libreville, Gabon. It is the main international airport in the country and was constructed in the 1950s.

ChatGPT

  1. fool

    A fool is a person who behaves in a silly, unwise, or reckless manner, often lacking in common sense or good judgment. It can also refer to someone who is easily tricked or deceived. The term can also be used humorously or affectionately to describe someone who is acting playfully and teasingly.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Foolnoun

    a compound of gooseberries scalded and crushed, with cream; -- commonly called gooseberry fool

  2. Foolnoun

    one destitute of reason, or of the common powers of understanding; an idiot; a natural

  3. Foolnoun

    a person deficient in intellect; one who acts absurdly, or pursues a course contrary to the dictates of wisdom; one without judgment; a simpleton; a dolt

  4. Foolnoun

    one who acts contrary to moral and religious wisdom; a wicked person

  5. Foolnoun

    one who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments

  6. Foolverb

    to play the fool; to trifle; to toy; to spend time in idle sport or mirth

  7. Foolverb

    to infatuate; to make foolish

  8. Foolverb

    to use as a fool; to deceive in a shameful or mortifying manner; to impose upon; to cheat by inspiring foolish confidence; as, to fool one out of his money

  9. Etymology: [OE. fol, n. & adj., F. fol, fou, foolish, mad; a fool, prob. fr. L. follis a bellows, wind bag, an inflated ball; perh. akin to E. bellows. Cf. Folly, Follicle.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Fool

    fōōl, n. one who acts stupidly: a person of weak mind: a jester: a tool or victim, as of untoward circumstances: (B.) a wicked person.—v.t. to deceive: to treat with contempt.—v.i. to play the fool: to trifle.—adjs. Fool′-begged (Shak.), taken for a fool, idiotical, absurd; Fool′-born (Shak.), foolish from one's birth, arising from folly.—n. Fool′ery, an act of folly: habitual folly.—adj. Fool′-happ′y, happy or lucky without contrivance or judgment.—n. Fool′-hard′iness—(Spens.) Fool′-hard′ise.—adjs. Fool′-hard′y, foolishly bold: rash or incautious; Fool′ish, weak in intellect: wanting discretion: ridiculous: marked with folly: deserving ridicule: (B.) sinful, disregarding God's laws.—adv. Fool′ishly.—ns. Fool′ishness, Fool′ing, foolery.—adj. Fool′ish-wit′ty (Shak.), wise in folly and foolish in wisdom.—ns. Fool's′-err′and, a silly or fruitless enterprise: search for what cannot be found; Fool's′-pars′ley, an umbelliferous plant in Britain, not to be mistaken for parsley, being poisonous.—Fool away, to spend to no purpose or profit; Fool's cap, a kind of head-dress worn by professional fools or jesters, usually having a cockscomb hood with bells; Fool's paradise, a state of happiness based on fictitious hopes or expectations; Fool with, to meddle with officiously; Make a fool of, to bring a person into ridicule: to disappoint; Play the fool, to behave as a fool: to sport. [O. Fr. fol (Fr. fou), It. folle—L. follis, a wind-bag.]

  2. Fool

    fōōl, n. crushed fruit scalded or stewed, mixed with cream and sugar, as 'gooseberry fool.' [Prob. a use of preceding suggested by trifle.]

The New Hacker's Dictionary

  1. fool

    As used by hackers, specifically describes a person who habitually reasons from obviously or demonstrably incorrect premises and cannot be persuaded by evidence to do otherwise; it is not generally used in its other senses, i.e., to describe a person with a native incapacity to reason correctly, or a clown. Indeed, in hackish experience many fools are capable of reasoning all too effectively in executing their errors. See also cretin, loser, fool file.The Algol 68-R compiler used to initialize its storage to the character string "F00LF00LF00LF00L..." because as a pointer or as a floating point number it caused a crash, and as an integer or a character string it was very recognizable in a dump. Sadly, one day a very senior professor at Nottingham University wrote a program that called him a fool. He proceeded to demonstrate the correctness of this assertion by lobbying the university (not quite successfully) to forbid the use of Algol on its computers. See also DEADBEEF.

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. fool

    "He's no fool on a march," a phrase meaning that such a person is equal to what he undertakes.

Rap Dictionary

  1. foolnoun

    A dumb guy. "Even my momma thinks my mind is gone, fool!" -- Coolio (Gangsta Paradise) Used in Southern California to address someone as a friend, as in "Wassup fool", in the same sense as words like "homie" or "dogg".

Suggested Resources

  1. FOOL

    What does FOOL stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the FOOL acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'FOOL' in Nouns Frequency: #1922

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce FOOL?

How to say FOOL in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of FOOL in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of FOOL in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of FOOL in a Sentence

  1. Larry Elder:

    I’m not somebody who pulls out the race card the way Barack Obama does, the way Al Sharpton does, the way CNN does, the way Black Lives Matter does, maybe it was just an idiot. Maybe it was just a fool. Maybe it was just someone who doesn’t like Larry Elder.

  2. Thomas B. Macaulay:

    The maxim that people should not have a right till they are ready to exercise it properly, is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.

  3. Mark Antony:

    Tell them - to cut off his hands and nail them to the Senate door. I told the old fool I'd do it if he ever crossed me again. Nobody can possibly say that I don't keep my word.

  4. Proverb:

    He who listens to the advice of a woman is a fool.

  5. Ruckett:

    The fool needs company, the wise solitude.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

FOOL#1#7585#10000

Translations for FOOL

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

  • flousAfrikaans
  • أحمق, مغفلArabic
  • abdal, axmaqAzerbaijani
  • ду́раньBelarusian
  • кисел, глупа́к, шут, абда́лBulgarian
  • মূর্খBengali
  • beneit, el boig, idiota, enganarCatalan, Valencian
  • pitomec, šašek, blb, blázen, blbec, klaun, hlupák, pošetilec, blboun, klamat, obelhávatCzech
  • ухмахChuvash
  • nar, fjolsDanish
  • Trottel, Narr, Tor, Mus, der Narr, dumme Gans, Dummkopf, betrügen, verarschen, schwindeln, täuschenGerman
  • κάρτα ταρό, τζουτζές, γελωτοποιός, ανόητος, ξεγελάωGreek
  • malsaĝuloEsperanto
  • imbécil, tonto, el loco, bobo, el bufón, bufón, necio, tomar el pelo, engañar, engrupirSpanish
  • tola, narr, tobu, lollEstonian
  • خنگ, ابله, احمقPersian
  • höhlä, pöljä, idiootti, hovinarri, typerys, tomppeli, hölmö, narri, tollo, pöllö, pöhkö, houkka, narrata, puliveivata, huijataFinnish
  • býttlingur, dáriFaroese
  • le fou, bouffon, idiot, le mat, fou, imbécile, rouler, duper, tromperFrench
  • leibide, amadán, óinseachIrish
  • amadan, òinseachScottish Gaelic
  • chouchoGalician
  • גולםHebrew
  • मूर्खHindi
  • bolond, bolondítHungarian
  • հիմար, խեղկատակ, հիմարացնելArmenian
  • sontoloyo, goblok, tolol, bodohIndonesian
  • bjániIcelandic
  • buffone di corte, imbecille, il matto, giullare, buffone, scemo, sciocco, idiota, il folle, pagliaccio, fare lo sciocco, ingannare, scherzare, farsi beffe diItalian
  • 戯け(たわけ), あほ, 馬鹿, 愚か者, 惚け, 道化 師, アホ, 愚者, ばかにするJapanese
  • sontoloyoJavanese
  • იდიოტი, ბრიყვი, დებილი, სულელიGeorgian
  • ақымақKazakh
  • ល្ងីល្ងើ, មនុស្សល្ងីល្ងើKhmer
  • 바보, 광대Korean
  • келесоо, акмакKyrgyz
  • stultusLatin
  • kvailys, juokdarysLithuanian
  • neprāte, muļķe, neprātis, muļķis, duraksLatvian
  • ngoungouaMāori
  • абдалMacedonian
  • bodohMalay
  • iqarquMaltese
  • ဗာလBurmese
  • dwaas, bedriegen, in de maling nemenDutch
  • narr, dust, tulling, tosk, narre, lureNorwegian
  • głupiec, dureń, głupek, oszukaćPolish
  • bobo da corte, idiota, bobo, louco, imbecil, tolo, lograr, enganarPortuguese
  • bufon, prost, prosti, păcăliRomanian
  • ду́рень, тупи́ца, идио́т, дура́к, болва́н, деби́л, скоморо́х, дурале́й, балбе́с, ду́ра, шут, идио́тка, глупе́ц, наду́ть, одура́чить, обдури́ть, дура́чить, дури́ть, надува́тьRussian
  • šut, луђак, глупан, dvorska luda, buzda, glupan, luđak, абдал, budala, глупак, glupak, luda, бузда, будала, šutnik, abdal, nasamariti, насамаритиSerbo-Croatian
  • මෝඩයා, මැට්ටාSinhala, Sinhalese
  • hlupák, blbec, blázon, okabátiťSlovak
  • budalo, bedak, norec, bizgec, neumnež, bukseljSlovene
  • budalla, idiotAlbanian
  • kräm, dåre, narrSwedish
  • mjinga, juha, falaSwahili
  • முட்டாள்Tamil
  • аҳмақ, аблаҳTajik
  • ตุ่น, คนโง่Thai
  • paňkelle, samsykTurkmen
  • budala, aptal, ahmak, salakTurkish
  • ду́реньUkrainian
  • مورکھUrdu
  • ahmoq, tentakUzbek
  • thằng nguVietnamese
  • 傻子Chinese

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    flee; take to one's heels; cut and run
    A elaborate
    B scarper
    C abduct
    D abide

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