Dictionary:

fool

  (fūl)

1. One who is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding.
2. One who acts unwisely on a given occasion: I was a fool to have quit my job.
3. One who has been tricked or made to appear ridiculous; a dupe: They made a fool of me by pretending I had won.
4. Informal. A person with a talent or enthusiasm for a certain activity: a dancing fool; a fool for skiing.
5. A member of a royal or noble household who provided entertainment, as with jokes or antics; a jester.
6. One who subverts convention or orthodoxy or varies from social conformity in order to reveal spiritual or moral truth: a holy fool.
7. A dessert made of stewed or puréed fruit mixed with cream or custard and served cold.
8. Archaic. A mentally deficient person; an idiot.

1. To deceive or trick; dupe: “trying to learn how to fool a trout with a little bit of floating fur and feather” (Charles Kuralt).
2. To confound or prove wrong; surprise, especially pleasantly: We were sure they would fail, but they fooled us.

1. Informal.
   1. To speak or act facetiously or in jest; joke: I was just fooling when I said I had to leave.
   2. To behave comically; clown.
   3. To feign; pretend: He said he had a toothache but he was only fooling.
2. To engage in idle or frivolous activity.
3. To toy, tinker, or mess: shouldn't fool with matches.

Foolish; stupid: off on some fool errand or other.

fool around Informal.

1. To engage in idle or casual activity; putter: was fooling around with the old car in hopes of fixing it.
2. To engage in frivolous activity; make fun.
3. To engage in casual, often promiscuous sexual acts.

1. To waste (time or money) foolishly; squander: fooled away the week's pay on Friday night.

play (or act) the fool

1. To act in an irresponsible or foolish manner.
2. To behave in a playful or comical manner.

[Middle English fol, from Old French, from Late Latin follis, windbag, fool, from Latin follis, bellows.]

WORD HISTORY   The pejorative nature of the term fool is strengthened by a knowledge of its etymology. Its source, the Latin word follis, meant “a bag or sack, a large inflated ball, a pair of bellows.” Users of the word in Late Latin, however, saw a resemblance between the bellows or the inflated ball and a person who was what we would call “a windbag” or “an airhead.” The word, which passed into English by way of French, is first recorded in English in a work written around the beginning of the 13th century with the sense “a foolish, stupid, or ignorant person.”

A purée of fruit with cream or custard.

England is the home of this old-fashioned dessert made of cooked, pure´ed fruit that is strained, chilled and folded into whipped cream. The fruit mixture may be sweetened or not. Fool is traditionally made from gooseberries, though any fruit may be substituted.

noun

1. One deficient in judgment and good sense: ass, idiot, imbecile, jackass, mooncalf, moron, nincompoop, ninny, nitwit, simple, simpleton, softhead, tomfool. Informal dope, gander, goose. Slang cretin, ding-dong, dip, goof, jerk, nerd, schmo, schmuck, turkey. See ability/inability.
2. A person who is easily deceived or victimized: butt³, dupe, gull, lamb, pushover, victim. Informal sucker. Slang fall guy, gudgeon, mark, monkey, patsy, pigeon, sap¹. Chiefly British mug. See wise/foolish.

verb

1. To cause to accept what is false, especially by trickery or misrepresentation: beguile, betray, bluff, cozen, deceive, delude, double-cross, dupe, hoodwink, humbug, mislead, take in, trick. Informal bamboozle, have. Slang four-flush. Idioms: lead astray, play false, pull the wool over someone's eyes, put something over on, take for a ride. See honest/dishonest.
2. To waste time by engaging in aimless activity: doodle, putter. Informal fool around, mess around. See thrive/fail/exist.
3. To handle something idly, ignorantly, or destructively: fiddle, meddle, mess, tamper, tinker. Informal monkey. See help/harm/harmless, touch/not touch.
4. To move one's fingers or hands in a nervous or aimless fashion: fiddle, fidget, monkey, play, putter, tinker, toy, trifle, twiddle. See touch/not touch.

phrasal verb - fool around

1. To waste time by engaging in aimless activity: doodle, fool, putter. Informal mess around. See thrive/fail/exist.
2. To make jokes; behave playfully: jest, joke. Informal clown (around), fun. See laughter.
3. To engage in kissing, caressing, and other amorous behavior: Informal neck, pet¹, spoon. Slang make out. See sex/asexual.
4. To be sexually unfaithful to another: philander, womanize. Informal cheat, mess around, play around. See sex/asexual.

phrasal verb - fool away

To spend (money) excessively and usually foolishly: consume, dissipate, fritter away, riot away, squander, throw away, trifle away, waste. Slang blow¹. See save/waste.

Idioms beginning with fool:
fool and his money are soon parted, a
fool away
fool's errand
fools rush in where angels fear to tread

See also make a fool of; nobody's fool; no fool like an old fool; not suffer fools gladly; play the fool; take for (a fool). Also see under foolish.

Definition: idiot; stupid or ridiculous person
Antonyms: brain, genius, savant, wise man

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.

For more information on fool, visit Britannica.com.

Laughing at stupidity and craziness is a basic, universal form of humour, well represented in English tradition. The language is rich in inventive semi-proverbial phrases to express just how daft someone is, from the medieval jeer that he or she would ‘shoe a goose’ or ‘cut off the branch he's sitting on’ to the modern ‘he's a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic’; the nonsense world of nursery rhymes is full of jokes about silly or impossible acts and topsy-turvy situations. Visually, the theme can be recognized in medieval art and sculpture, where grotesque figures pulling faces and/or engaging in undignified or ludicrous actions were surely intended as fools.

Whole communities and ethnic groups have been labelled fools, and made the topic for cycles of jokes; older examples (often called ‘noodle’ or ‘numskull’ tales) relate to people from specified villages or rural districts, for example the Men of Gotham and the Wiltshire moonrakers, more recent ones to certain immigrant groups, especially the Irish. In some contexts, notably in schools and workplaces, custom allows practical jokes aimed at making people look foolish, and this is especially true on April Fools' Day.

Until fairly recent times it was socially acceptable to laugh at the behaviour of those born ‘simple-minded’, at the mad, and at freaks. From medieval times till the reign of Charles I, there are ample records of fools, jesters, and dwarfs at court and in wealthy households; some of the fools were undoubtedly ‘innocent’, i.e. half-witted, while others were skilled entertainers, with a repertoire of bawdy and/or slapstick humour and witty repartee lightly masked as ‘folly’,‘Jest books’, i.e. collections of stock anecdotes about the cleverness (or stupidity) of fools, circulated as popular literature. Some are sheer fiction, such as those about the legendary Marcolf who supposedly disputed with Solomon; others describe real people, such as Henry VII's fool Will Somer, and may contain accurate reminiscences alongside the inventions. As is well known, the professional fool-as-entertainer is also an important figure on the stage, from Elizabethan plays to modern circus clowns and cinema comedians.See Clouston, 1888; Welsford, 1935; Billington, 1984; Christie Davies, in Spoken in Jest, ed. Gillian Bennett (1991), 215-35; Malcolm Jones, Folklore 100 (1989), 201-17; Jones, 2002: 100-43.

Courtly society in medieval Ireland, Scotland, and Wales included jesters, buffoons, and mimics for entertainment; as conventional figures in early narratives they often, like King Lear's Fool, speak more wisely than their masters. Lomna reports the adultery of Fionn mac Cumhaill's wife. Mac Glas, fool of Máel Fothartaig, is killed with his master. Do Dera tries to save his master, Lugaid mac Con, by impersonating him in battle. Irish distinguishes between the professional fool [Old Irish drúth] and the more modern person of poor judgement [Modern Irish amadán], although English does not. The Irish and Scottish Gaelic folk figure Amadán Mór [Big Fool] is heroic; see EACHTRA AN AMADÁIN MHÓIR [The Adventure of the Big Fool].

n.

A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscience, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war -- founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting -- such as creation's dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man's evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization.

Tutor's tip: Only a "fool" (a stupid person or act) would start out on a road trip without making sure the gas tank is "full" (complete; entire) of "fuel." (something that creates energy, such as gasoline)

Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - fjols, idiot, nar
v. tr. - narre, snyde, løbe om hjørner med
v. intr. - pjatte, fjolle, lege
adj. - fjollet, tåbelig, idiotisk

idioms:

• fool about    fjolle rundt
• fool around    lege med
• fool with    fumle med
• fool's errand    tåbeligt foretagende
• fool's gold    svovlkis
• fool's mate    lærlingemat
• fool's paradise    lykkelig uvidenhed
• make a fool of    gøre til grin
• more fool    mere fjollet
• nobody's fool    klog nok

2.
n. - frugtmos i flødeskum

Nederlands (Dutch)
dwaas, nar, gek, soort dessert (vruchten/ custard etc.), bedotten, zich dwaas gedragen, spelen, de dwaas spelen, grapjes maken, verspillen

Français (French)
1.
n. - idiot, clown, bête, imbécile, pitre, (Hist) fou, bouffon
v. tr. - tromper, duper, amener qn à (faire), faire croire à (qn), se laisser abuser, faire marcher
v. intr. - plaisanter, se faire des illusions
adj. - idiot, stupide

idioms:

• fool about    faire l'idiot, (GB) perdre son temps, papillonner, batifoler
• fool around    (GB) perdre son temps, faire l'idiot, papillonner, batifoler, s'amuser avec
• fool away    gaspiller, dilapider, claquer (une fortune)
• fool with    faire l'imbécile avec
• fool's errand    courir pour rien, se dépenser en pure perte
• fool's gold    (Géol) chalcopyrite
• fool's mate    partenaire du fou
• fool's paradise    bonheur illusoire
• make a fool of    ridiculiser
• more fool    ce que tu es bête (excl)
• nobody's fool    ne pas être né d'hier, ne pas tomber de la dernière pluie

2.
n. - (GB, Culin) crème à la rhubarbe/aux fruits

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Dummkopf, Narr
v. - täuschen, betrügen, herumalbern
adj. - (colloq.Am) töricht, närrisch

idioms:

• fool about    herumalbern, herumtrödeln
• fool around    herumalbern, herumtrödeln
• fool away    verschwenden, vergeuden
• fool with    herumspielen mit
• fool's errand    vergebliches Unternehmen
• fool's gold    Eisenkies, Katzengold
• fool's mate    Schachmatt im 2. Zug des 2. Spielers
• fool's paradise    Traumwelt
• make a fool of    lächerlich machen
• more fool    eigene Dummheit
• nobody's fool    nicht dumm sein

2.
n. - (Frucht)Creme, Obstmus

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ανόητος, κορόιδο, (ιστ.) γελωτοποιός, παλιάτσος
v. - εξαπατώ, κοροϊδεύω, αστειεύομαι, κάνω ανοησίες, κάνω το βλάκα

idioms:

• fool about    χαζολογώ, χασομερώ
• fool around    ερωτοτροπώ, τραβολογιέμαι, μπερμπαντεύω
• fool with    χαζολογώ, ενεργώ χωρίς σκοπό
• fool's errand    (καθομ.) άσκοπα τρεχάματα
• fool's gold    (ορυκτολ.) σιδηροπυρίτης ή χαλκοπυρίτης
• fool's mate    ματ σε δύο κινήσεις
• fool's paradise    (καθομ.) αυταπάτη, αφελής μακαριότητα
• make a fool of    εξαπατώ, γελοιοποιώ
• more fool    ανοησία
• nobody's fool    ατσίδα
• play the fool    παριστάνω τον τρελό

Italiano (Italian)
ingannare, imbrogliare, sciocco, buffone

idioms:

• act/play the fool    fare lo scemo
• fool about    oziare
• fool around    fare il fesso, andare a letto con tutti
• fool with    immisachiarsi
• fool's errand    impresa inutile
• fool's gold    pirite
• fool's mate    scacco del barbiere
• fool's paradise    sciocca illusione
• make a fool of    ridicolizzare
• more fool    più pazzo
• nobody's fool    lo zimbello di nessuno

Português (Portuguese)
n. - idiota (m)
v. - enganar, brincar (não falar sério)

idioms:

• act/play the fool    bancar o bobo (Col.)
• fool about    perder tempo inutilmente
• fool around    brincar (não levar a sério)
• fool with    agir de forma irresponsável
• fool's errand    esforço (m) ou trabalho (m) ineficaz
• fool's gold    imitação (f) de ouro
• fool's mate    mate (m) de bobo (fig.)
• fool's paradise    castelo (m) de areia (fig.)
• make a fool of    fazer papel de bobo
• more fool    azar o seu
• nobody's fool    não ser bobo

Русский (Russian)
иметь слабость, баловаться, дурак, шут, глупый

idioms:

• act/play the fool    валять дурака
• fool about    дурачиться, болтаться попусту
• fool around    болтаться попусту
• fool with    играться, задевать
• fool's errand    пустая затея
• fool's gold    самоварное золото
• fool's mate    детский мат
• fool's paradise    нереальный мир
• make a fool of    обмануть, водить за нос
• more fool    еще глупее
• nobody's fool    (его) не проведешь

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - tonto, estúpido, imbécil, bufón
v. tr. - engañar, tomar el pelo, hacer creer, embaucar
v. intr. - bromear, tontear, pasar el tiempo en tonterías
adj. - tonto, estúpido, imbécil, bufón

idioms:

• fool about    juguetear, perder el tiempo
• fool around    juguetear, perder el tiempo, ser promiscuo
• fool away    malgastar, despilfarrar
• fool with    jugar con, meterse con
• fool's errand    trabajo inútil, empresa descabellada
• fool's gold    pirita de hierro o cobre
• fool's mate    mate sencillo en ajedrez
• fool's paradise    felicidad falsa, mundo irreal o de ensueño
• make a fool of    poner en ridículo
• more fool    peor para ti
• nobody's fool    no tener pelo de tonto

2.
n. - postre hecho con frutas y crema

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - dåre, narr, överdängare, kräm (mos)
v. - skoja med, bära sig åt som en stolle

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
愚人, 奶油拌水果, 受骗者, 愚弄, 浪费, 欺骗, 干傻事, 游荡, 开玩笑, 傻的

idioms:

• fool about    虚度光阴
• fool around    胡闹, 混日子, 搞不正常的性关系
• fool with    瞎弄, 乱弄
• fool's errand    徒劳无功的工作
• fool's gold    黄铁矿, 黄铜矿
• fool's mate    走第二步棋后就出现败局
• fool's paradise    虚幻的乐境, 幻想
• make a fool of    愚弄, 欺骗
• more fool    那样做真傻
• nobody's fool    机智聪明的人, 精明

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 愚人, 奶油拌水果, 受騙者
v. tr. - 愚弄, 浪費, 欺騙
v. intr. - 幹傻事, 遊蕩, 開玩笑
adj. - 傻的

idioms:

• fool about    虛度光陰
• fool around    胡鬧, 混日子, 搞不正常的性關係
• fool with    瞎弄, 亂弄
• fool's errand    徒勞無功的工作
• fool's gold    黃鐵礦, 黃銅礦
• fool's mate    走第二步棋後就出現敗局
• fool's paradise    虛幻的樂境, 幻想
• make a fool of    愚弄, 欺騙
• more fool    那樣做真傻
• nobody's fool    機智聰明的人, 精明

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 바보, 얼간이, 광대
v. tr. - ~을 업신여기다
v. intr. - 어리석은 짓을 하다, 헤메다
adj. - 어리석은

idioms:

• fool about    시간을 낭비하다
• fool around    빈둥거리다, 시간을 낭비하다
• fool with    ~을 가지고 장난치다
• make a fool of    ~을 바보로 취급하다

2.
n. - (요리의 일종) 과일과 크림 따위를 섞은 요리

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ばか者, 道化師, ばか, 道化
v. - ばかにする, だます, だまして…させる, ばかなまねをする, ふざける

idioms:

• act/play the fool    道化をする, ばかなまねをする
• fool about    当てもなくぶらつく
• fool around    のらくら過ごす, いじくる
• fool with    いじくる, …におせっかいする
• make a fool of    ばかにする
• nobody's fool    だまされない

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) شخص أحمق (فعل) يخدع‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮טיפש, ליצן‬
v. tr. - ‮רימה, שיטה‬
v. intr. - ‮השתטה‬
adj. - ‮טיפש‬
n. - ‮ליפתן העשוי בד"כ פרי מבושל מעורבב בשמנת, רפרפת ביצים ועוד (בריטניה)‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.