fool

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a dessert made by combining custard and a fruit puree

   Dessert will be a strawberry fool.

2. 2
   noun

   a person who lacks good judgment

   I'm a fool for you.

3. 3
   noun

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

   The fool entertained the court.

4. 4
   verb

   to indulge in horseplay

   We were just fooling!

5. 5
   verb

   to deceive or be deceived

   You really fooled me!

6. 6
   noun

   A person with poor judgment or little intelligence.

   You were a fool to cross that busy road without looking.

7. 7
   noun

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

   1896, Frederick Peterson IN Popular Science Monthly Volume 50 December 1896 , Idiots Savants This court fool could say bright things on occasion, but his main use to the ladies and lords of the palace was to serve as victim to practical jokes, cruel, coarse, and vulgar enough to be appreciated perhaps in the Bowery.

8. 8
   noun

   Someone who has been made a fool of or tricked; dupe.

   Such clouds of nameless trouble cross ⁠All night below the darken’d eyes; ⁠With morning wakes the will, and cries, ‘Thou shalt not be the fool of loss.’

Etymology

From Middle English fole (“fool”), from Old French fol (cf. modern French fou (“mad”)) from Latin follis. Doublet of fals and follis. Displaced native Old English dwæs.