Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Lack of good sense, understanding, or foresight.
- noun An act or instance of foolishness.
- noun A costly undertaking having an absurd or ruinous outcome.
- noun An elaborate theatrical revue consisting of music, dance, and skits.
- noun A structure, such as a pavilion in a garden, that is chiefly decorative rather than practical in purpose.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Foolish.
- To act with folly; act foolishly.
- noun The character or conduct of a fool; the state of being foolish; weakness of judgment or character, or actions which spring from it; want of understanding; weak or light-minded conduct.
- noun Something regard for or attention to which is foolish.
- noun Specifically Conduct morally bad; wickedness; wantonness.
- noun A costly structure or other undertaking left unfinished for want of means, too expensive to be properly maintained, built in a very ill-chosen place, or the like; an enterprise that exhausts or ruins the projector.
- noun Synonyms Nonsense, foolishness, senselessness, ridiculousness, extravagance, indiscretion, imbecility. See list under
absurdity .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The state of being foolish; want of good sense; levity, weakness, or derangement of mind.
- noun A foolish act; an inconsiderate or thoughtless procedure; weak or light-minded conduct; foolery.
- noun Scandalous crime; sin; specifically, as applied to a woman, wantonness.
- noun The result of a foolish action or enterprise.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Foolishness . - noun Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence.
- noun A fanciful building built for purely ornamental reasons.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the quality of being rash and foolish
- noun a stupid mistake
- noun foolish or senseless behavior
- noun the trait of acting stupidly or rashly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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III. i.75 (201,2) [But wise-men's folly fall'n] Sir Thomas Hammer reads, _folly shewn_.
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I. ii.23 (14,4) his valour is crushed into folly] To be _crushed into folly_, is to be _confused_ and mingled with _folly_, so as that they make one mass together.
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And if any offer of alliance or parley of individual elders comes from home, the false spirits shut the gates of the castle and permit no one to enter, — there is a battle, and they gain the victory; and straightway making alliance with the desires, they banish modesty, which they call folly, and send temperance over the border.
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He blamed himself for what he called the folly of the past weeks.
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Judasa said it would do everything in its power to try and convince Health Minster Nkosazana Zuma of what it called the folly of the plan.
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Mrs. Lewis begged that Elma should not be taken away from her; and Mrs. Steward, angry with herself for what she termed her folly, had yet yielded to her sister's entreaties.
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"I'm afraid what you call my folly didn't avail, for they wanted what they saw in my portfolio."
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Captain Gauley and Mat laughed at what they called the folly of Levi, and assured Bessie he would never find her.
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It cannot be said that he had not felt and secretly resented what he called the folly of the unreasonable old man.
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` 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.
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word folly
What is life but a series of inspired follies?
-Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw
August 3, 2009