Adjacent Words

Foolish definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FOOL'ISH, a.
1. Void of understanding or sound judgment; weak in intellect; applied to general character.
2. Unwise; imprudent; acting without judgment or discretion in particular things.
3. Proceeding from folly, or marked with folly; silly; vain; trifling.
But foolish questions avoid. 2 Timothy 2.
4. Ridiculous; despicable.
A foolish figure he must make.
5. In scripture, wicked; sinful; acting without regard to the divine law and glory, or to one's own eternal happiness.
O foolish Galatians - Galatians 3.
6. Proceeding from depravity; sinful; as foolish lusts. 1 Timothy 6.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: devoid of good sense or judgment; "foolish remarks"; "a foolish decision" [ant: wise]
2: having or revealing stupidity; "ridiculous anserine behavior"; "a dopey answer"; "a dopey kid"; "some fool idea about rewriting authors' books" [syn: anserine, dopy, dopey, foolish, goosey, goosy, gooselike, jerky]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 13th century 1. lacking in sense, judgment, or discretion 2. a. absurd, ridiculous b. marked by a loss of composure ; nonplussed 3. insignificant, trifling Synonyms: see simple • foolishly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. (of a person, action, etc.) lacking good sense or judgement; unwise. Derivatives: foolishly adv. foolishness n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Foolish Fool"ish, a. 1. Marked with, or exhibiting, folly; void of understanding; weak in intellect; without judgment or discretion; silly; unwise. I am a very foolish fond old man. --Shak. 2. Such as a fool would do; proceeding from weakness of mind or silliness; exhibiting a want of judgment or discretion; as, a foolish act. 3. Absurd; ridiculous; despicable; contemptible. A foolish figure he must make. --Prior. Syn: Absurd; shallow; shallow-brained; brainless; simple; irrational; unwise; imprudent; indiscreet; incautious; silly; ridiculous; vain; trifling; contemptible. See Absurd.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If someone's behaviour or action is foolish, it is not sensible and shows a lack of good judgment. It would be foolish to raise hopes unnecessarily... It is foolish to risk skin cancer. ADJ: oft it v-link ADJ to-inf • foolishly He admitted that he had acted foolishly. ADV: usu ADV with v • foolishness They don't accept any foolishness when it comes to spending money. N-UNCOUNT 2. If you look or feel foolish, you look or feel so silly or ridiculous that people are likely to laugh at you. I didn't want him to look foolish and be laughed at. = ridiculous ADJ: usu v-link ADJ • foolishly He saw me standing there, grinning foolishly at him. ADV: ADV after v

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Senseless, idiotic, silly, weak, daft, simple, irrational, insensate, shallow, brainless, witless, thick-skulled, buffle-headed, shallow-brained. 2. Unwise, unreasonable, absurd, ridiculous, nonsensical, ill-judged, preposterous, indiscreet, imprudent. 3. Idle, trivial, trifling, vain, childish, puerile, contemptible.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

An expression among impures, signifying the cully who pays, in opposition to a flash man. Is he foolish or flash?

Moby Thesaurus

Pickwickian, absurd, airy, apish, arch, asinine, batty, befooled, beguiled, bemused, besotted, beyond belief, bizarre, blockheaded, boneheaded, brainless, brash, buffoonish, catchpenny, cockamamie, cockeyed, confused, crazy, credulous, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dazed, demented, devilish, dim, dim-witted, dippy, dizzy, dopey, doting, dotty, dull-witted, dumb, elfish, elvish, empty, empty-headed, erratic, extravagant, fantastic, fatuitous, fatuous, feebleminded, flaky, flimsy, fond, fool, foolhardy, foolheaded, fribble, fribbling, frivolous, frothy, fuddled, full of mischief, futile, gaga, goofy, grotesque, gulled, hasty, headless, headlong, heedless, high-flown, high-spirited, idiotic, idle, ignorant, ill-advised, ill-considered, illogical, imbecile, imbecilic, impetuous, impish, impolitic, imprudent, inane, incautious, incredible, indiscreet, inept, infatuated, injudicious, insane, insensate, irrational, knavish, kooky, lackbrained, laughable, lean-minded, lean-witted, light, light-headed, loony, ludicrous, mad, maudlin, mindless, mischief-loving, mischievous, misguided, monstrous, moronic, nonsensical, not bright, nugacious, nugatory, numskulled, nuts, nutty, obtuse, of little brain, otiose, outrageous, outre, pea-brained, pin-brained, playful, poppycockish, potty, prankish, pranksome, pranky, preposterous, puckish, rash, reasonless, reckless, ridiculous, roguish, rubbishy, sappy, scampish, scapegrace, scatterbrained, screwy, senseless, sentimental, shallow, short-sighted, silly, skimble-skamble, slackminded, slackwitted, slender, slight, slow-witted, sportive, stolid, stupid, superficial, thick, thickheaded, thoughtless, trashy, trickish, tricksy, trifling, trite, trivial, twaddling, twaddly, ungifted, unintellectual, unintelligent, unorthodox, unreasonable, unreasoning, unstable, untalented, unthinking, unwary, unwise, unwitty, vacuous, vain, vapid, wacky, waggish, weak-minded, weird, wet, wild, windy, witless