Definition: fool

Source: WordNet (r) 1.7

fool
     adj 1: (informal terms) "gave me a cockamamie reason for not
            going"; "wore a goofy hat"; "a silly idea"; "some
            wacky plan for selling more books" [syn: cockamamie,
             cockamamy, fool, goofy, sappy, silly, wacky,
             zany, unreasonable]
     2: (informal) having or revealing stupidity; "ridiculous
        anserine behavior"; "a dopey answer"; "a dopey kid"; "some
        fool idea about rewriting authors' books" [syn: anserine,
         dopy, dopey, fool, foolish, goosey, goosy,
         gooselike]
     n 1: a person who lacks good judgment [syn: sap, saphead, muggins,
           tomfool]
     2: a person who is gullible and easy to take advantage of [syn:
         chump, gull, mark, patsy, fall guy, sucker, schlemiel,
         shlemiel, soft touch, mug]
     3: a professional clown employed to to entertain a king or
        nobleman in the middle ages [syn: jester]
     v 1: make a fool or dupe of [syn: gull, befool]
     2: spend frivolously and unwisely; "Fritter away one's
        inheritance" [syn: fritter, frivol away, dissipate,
        shoot, fritter away, fool away]
     3: fool or hoax; "The immigrant was duped because he trusted
        everyone"; "You can't fool me!" [syn: gull, dupe, slang,
         befool, cod, put on, take in, put one over, put
        one across]
     4: indulge in horseplay; "Enough horsing around--let's get back
        to work!"; "The bored children were fooling about" [syn: horse
        around, arse around, fool around]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Fool \Fool\, n. [Cf. F. fouler to tread, crush. Cf. 1st Foil.]
   A compound of gooseberries scalded and crushed, with cream;
   -- commonly called gooseberry fool.

Fool \Fool\, n. [OE. fol, n. & adj., F. fol, fou, foolish, mad;
   a fool, prob. fr. L. follis a bellows, wind bag, an inflated
   ball; perh. akin to E. bellows. Cf. Folly, Follicle.]
   1. One destitute of reason, or of the common powers of
      understanding; an idiot; a natural.

   2. 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.

   3. (Script.) 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.

   4. 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
      ([AE]thusa 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.

Fool \Fool\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fooled; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Fooling.]
   To play the fool; to trifle; to toy; to spend time in idle
   sport or mirth.

Fool \Fool\, v. t.
   1. To infatuate; to make foolish. --Shak.

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

   2. 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.

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (2003-OCT-10)

FOOL

   Fool's Lisp.  A small Scheme interpreter.

   ftp://scam.berkeley.edu/src/local/fools.tar.Z.

   (1994-10-04)

Source: Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

fool n. As used by hackers, specifically describes a person who
   habitually reasons from obviously or demonstrably incorrect premises and
   cannot be persuaded by evidence to do otherwise; it is not generally
   used in its other senses, i.e., to describe a person with a native
   incapacity to reason correctly, or a clown. Indeed, in hackish
   experience many fools are capable of reasoning all too effectively in
   executing their errors. See also cretin, loser, fool file.

   The Algol 68-R compiler used to initialize its storage to the
   character string "F00LF00LF00LF00L..." because as a pointer or as a
   floating point number it caused a crash, and as an integer or a
   character string it was very recognizable in a dump. Sadly, one day a
   very senior professor at Nottingham University wrote a program that
   called him a fool. He proceeded to demonstrate the correctness of this
   assertion by lobbying the university (not quite successfully) to forbid
   the use of Algol on its computers. See also DEADBEEF.

FOOL, n.  A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation
and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity.  He is
omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscience, omnipotent.  He it was
who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the
telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences.  He created
patriotism and taught the nations war -- founded theology, philosophy,
law, medicine and Chicago.  He established monarchical and republican
government.  He is from everlasting to everlasting -- such as
creation's dawn beheld he fooleth now.  In the morning of time he sang
upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the
procession of being.  His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the
set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man's evening
meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal
grave.  And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of
eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human
civilization.