folly

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The men who have to pay for their folly are the men who deserve to pay.

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Definitions (19)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun A lack of good sense, understanding, or foresight.
  2. noun An act or instance of foolishness: regretted the follies of his youth.
  3. noun A costly undertaking having an absurd or ruinous outcome.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • From the valley, the folly was all but invisible, but from the single room high in the canopies, the views were extensive, an arcadian panorama of quiet valley and distantly burbling stream, of woods and orchards and green pastures The folly belonged to the manor; it was on manor lands, but no one from there or anywhere else visited any longer. —  Stephanie Laurens - A Fine Passion
  • If one wanted to keep an unobtrusive watch on all arrivals and departures, the folly was the place from which to do it. —  This is a work of fiction
  • Diverting any of our community's scarce resources into this folly is a mistake American Jewry can ill afford.
  • The most detestable form of this folly is the buying of incunabula_, first editions or uncut copies, and keeping them from publication or reading, and, in short, of worshipping anything, be it a book or a coin, merely because it is rare_. —  Memoirs
  • `Rather than spoil my uniform, I would have knocked him on the head with a pole,' said a third; and it was a long time before what they termed my folly was forgotten or forgiven. —  Black Ivory
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

cruelty ·  ignorance ·  vanity ·  stupidity ·  wickedness ·  pride ·  extravagance ·  vice ·  arrogance ·  violence ·  madness ·  prejudice

Used in the same contextWord Family

folly:   follies
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English folie, from Old French, from fol, foolish, from Late Latin follis, windbag, fool; see fool.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English folye, folie, from Old French folie, folly, foolishness, indiscretion, wantonness, French folie, folly, also madness, lunacy (= Provencal folia, follia, folhia, fulhia = Spanish (obsolete) folía = Italian follia), from Old French fol, fool, foolish: see fool.
  2. from folly, n.
  3. Middle English, also folliche, foly (modern as if *foolly), from fol, fool, + -ly, -liche, English -ly.
 

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/ˈfɑli/
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