FOOL, n. [Heb.]

1. One who is destitute of reason, or the common powers of understanding; an idiot. Some persons are born fools, and are called natural fools; others may become fools by some injury done to the brain.
2. In common language, a person who is somewhat deficient in intellect, but not an idiot; or a person who acts absurdly; one who does not exercise his reason; one who pursues a course contrary to the dictates of wisdom. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. Franklin.
3. In Scripture, fool is often used for a wicked or depraved person; one who acts contrary to sound wisdom in his moral deportment; one who follows his own inclinations, who prefers trifling and temporary pleasures to the service of God and eternal happiness. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. Ps. xiv.
4. A weak Christian; a godly person who has much remaining sin and unbelief. O fools, and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have written. Luke xxiv. Also, one who is accounted or called a fool by ungodly men. I Cor. iv. 10.
5. A term of indignity and reproach. To be thought knowing, you must first put the fool upoa all mankind. Dryden.
6. One who counterfeits folly; a buffoon; as, a king's fool. I scorn, although their drudge, to be their fool or jester. Milton. To play the fool, to act the buffoon; to jest; to make sport. #2. To act like one void of understanding. To put the fool on, to impose on; to delude. To make a fool of, to frustrate; to defeat; to disappoint.

A liquid made of gooseberries scalded and pounded, with cream. Shak.

To trifle; to toy; to spend time in idleness, sport or mirth. Is this a time for fooling? Dryden.

1. To treat with contempt; to disappoint; to defeat; to frustrate; to deceive; to impose on. When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat; / For fooled with hope, men favor the deceit. Dryden.
2. To infatuate; to make foolish. Shak.
3. To cheat; as, to fool one out of his money. To fool away, to spend in trifles, idleness, folly, or without advantage; as, to fool away time. #2. To spend for things of no value or use; to expend improvidently; as, to fool away money.

1. A compound of gooseberries scalded and crushed, with cream; -- commonly called gooseberry fool.
2. One destitute of reason, or of the common powers of understanding; an idiot; a natural.
3. To play the fool] to trifle; to toy; to spend time in idle sport or mirth.
   
   

   Is this a time for fooling? Dryden.

4. To infatuate; to make foolish.
   
   
   Shak.

   For, fooled with hope, men favor the deceit. Dryden.

5. A person deficient in intellect; one who acts absurdly, or pursues a course contrary to the dictates of wisdom; one without judgment; a simpleton; a dolt.
   
   

   Extol not riches, then, the toil of fools. Milton.

   Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. Franklin.

6. To use as a fool; to deceive in a shameful or mortifying manner; to impose upon; to cheat by inspiring foolish confidence; as, to fool one out of his money.
   
   

   You are fooled, discarded, and shook off
   By him for whom these shames ye underwent. Shak.

   To fool away, to get rid of foolishly; to spend in trifles, idleness, folly, or without advantage.

7. One who acts contrary to moral and religious wisdom; a wicked person.
   
   

   The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Ps. xiv. 1.

8. One who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments.
   
   

   Can they think me . . . their fool or jester? Milton.

   April fool, Court fool, etc. See under April, Court, etc. -- Fool's cap, a cap or hood to which bells were usually attached, formerly worn by professional jesters. -- Fool's errand, an unreasonable, silly, profitless adventure or undertaking. -- Fool's gold, iron or copper pyrites, resembling gold in color. -- Fool's paradise, a name applied to a limbo (see under Limbo) popularly believed to be the region of vanity and nonsense. Hence, any foolish pleasure or condition of vain self-satistaction. -- Fool's parsley (Bot.), an annual umbelliferous plant (Æthusa Cynapium) resembling parsley, but nauseous and poisonous. -- To make a fool of, to render ridiculous; to outwit; to shame. [Colloq.] -- To play the fool, to act the buffoon; to act a foolish part. "I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly." 1 Sam. xxvi. 21.