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[fool] /ful/

noun
1.
a silly or stupid person; a person who lacks judgment or sense.
2.
a professional jester, formerly kept by a person of royal or noble rank for amusement:
the court fool.
3.
a person who has been tricked or deceived into appearing or acting silly or stupid:
to make a fool of someone.
4.
an ardent enthusiast who cannot resist an opportunity to indulge an enthusiasm (usually preceded by a present participle):
He’s just a dancing fool.
5.
a weak-minded or idiotic person.
verb (used with object)
6.
to trick, deceive, or impose on:
They tried to fool him.
verb (used without object)
7.
to act like a fool; joke; play.
8.
to jest; pretend; make believe:
I was only fooling.
Verb phrases
9.
fool around,

10.
fool away, to spend foolishly, as time or money; squander:
to fool away the entire afternoon.
11.
fool with, to handle or play with idly or carelessly:
to be hurt while fooling with a loaded gun; to fool with someone’s affections.
Idioms
12.
be nobody’s fool, to be wise or shrewd.
/fuːl/
noun
1.
a person who lacks sense or judgement
2.
a person who is made to appear ridiculous
3.
(formerly) a professional jester living in a royal or noble household
4.
(obsolete) an idiot or imbecile: the village fool
5.
(Caribbean) form the fool, to play the fool or behave irritatingly
6.
no fool, a wise or sensible person
7.
play the fool, act the fool, to deliberately act foolishly; indulge in buffoonery
verb
8.
(transitive) to deceive (someone), esp in order to make him or her look ridiculous
9.
(intransitive; foll by with, around with, or about with) (informal) to act or play (with) irresponsibly or aimlessly: to fool around with a woman
10.
(intransitive) to speak or act in a playful, teasing, or jesting manner
11.
(transitive) foll by away. to squander; fritter: he fooled away a fortune
12.
(US) fool along, to move or proceed in a leisurely way
adjective
13.
(informal) short for foolish
/fuːl/
noun
1.
(mainly Brit) a dessert made from a purée of fruit with cream or custard: gooseberry fool
noun

See court jester
n.

late 13c., “silly or stupid person,” from Old French fol “madman, insane person; idiot; rogue; jester,” also “blacksmith’s bellows,” also an adjective meaning “mad, insane” (12c., Modern French fou), from Latin follis “bellows, leather bag” (see follicle); in Vulgar Latin used with a sense of “windbag, empty-headed person.” Cf. also Sanskrit vatula- “insane,” literally “windy, inflated with wind.”

The word has in mod.Eng. a much stronger sense than it had at an earlier period; it has now an implication of insulting contempt which does not in the same degree belong to any of its synonyms, or to the derivative foolish. [OED]

Meaning “jester, court clown” first attested late 14c., though it is not always possible to tell whether the reference is to a professional entertainer or an amusing lunatic on the payroll. As the name of a kind of custard dish, it is attested from 1590s (the food also was called trifle, which may be the source of the name).

There is no foole to the olde foole [Heywood, 1546]

Feast of Fools (early 14c.), from Medieval Latin festum stultorum) refers to the burlesque festival celebrated in some churches on New Year’s Day in medieval times. Fool’s gold “iron pyrite” is from 1829. Fool’s paradise “state of illusory happiness” is from mid-15c. Foolosopher, a most useful insult, turns up in a 1549 translation of Erasmus. Fool’s ballocks is described in OED as “an old name” for the green-winged orchid.

v.

mid-14c., “to be foolish, act the fool,” from fool (n.). The meaning “to make a fool of” is recorded from 1590s. Also as a verb 16c.-17c. was foolify. Related: Fooled; fooling. Fool around is 1875 in the sense of “pass time idly,” 1970s in sense of “have sexual adventures.”
adj.

“foolish, silly,” considered modern U.S. colloquial, but it is attested from early 13c., from fool (n.).

noun

An adept or enthusiast in what is indicated: Lindy was a flying fool

Related Terms

tomfool

[1920s+; perhaps because the person is devoted to the extent of foolishness]