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fool around

 - 4 dictionary results

fool

1  [fool]
Use fool around in a Sentence
–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 prec. 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,
a. to putter aimlessly; waste time: She fooled around all through school.
b. to philander or flirt.
c. to be sexually promiscuous, esp. to engage in adultery.
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.
—Idiom
12. be nobody's fool, to be wise or shrewd.
Origin:
1225–75; ME fol, fool < OF fol < L follis bellows, bag; cf. follis

Synonyms:
1. simpleton, dolt, dunce, blockhead, numskull, ignoramus, dunderhead, ninny, nincompoop, booby, saphead, sap. 2. zany, clown. 5. moron, imbecile, idiot. 6. delude, hoodwink, cheat, gull, hoax, cozen, dupe, gudgeon.

Antonyms:
1. genius.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To fool around
fool   (fōōl)   
n.  

  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.

v.   fooled, fool·ing, fools

v.   tr.

  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.

v.   intr.

  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.

adj.   Informal
Foolish; stupid: off on some fool errand or other.
Phrasal Verbs:
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.

Phrasal Verb(s):
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.

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

Idiom(s):
play/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; see bhel-2 in Indo-European roots.]
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."
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

fool  (n.)
c.1275, from O.Fr. fol "madman, insane person," also an adj. meaning "mad, insane," from L. follis "bellows, leather bag," in V.L. used with a sense of "windbag, empty-headed person" (see follicle). Cf. also Skt. vatula- "insane," lit. "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 1370, 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 1598 (the food was also called trifle, which may be the source of the name). The verb meaning "to make a fool of" is recorded from 1596. Feast of Fools (c.1320), from M.L. 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 1882. Fool's paradise "state of illusory happiness" is from 1462. Fool around is 1875 in the sense of "pass time idly," 1970s in sense of "have sexual adventures." Foolosopher, a most useful insult, turns up in a 1549 translation of Erasmus.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

fool around

  1. Also, . Engage in idle or casual activity, putter. For example, Jim loved to fool around with his computer, or She was monkeying around with some figures in hopes of balancing the budget. [Second half of 1800s]

  2. Engage in frivolous activity, waste time. For example, Instead of studying, he spends all his spare time fooling around. Also see fool away.

  3. Engage in flirting or casual sexual acts; also, engage in adultery. For example, He caught the two teenagers fooling around in the basement. [1830s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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