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Webster 1913 Edition


Foolery

Fool′er-y

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Fooleries
.
1.
The practice of folly; the behavior of a fool; foolish behavior; absurdity.
Folly in fools bears not so strong a note,
As
foolery
in the wise, when wit doth dote.
Shakespeare
2.
An act of folly or weakness; a foolish practice; something absurd or nonsensical.
That Pythagoras, Plato, or Orpheus, believed in any of these
fooleries
, it can not be suspected.
Sir W. Raleigh.

Webster 1828 Edition


Foolery

FOOL'ERY

,
Noun.
1.
The practice of folly; habitual folly; attention to trifles.
2.
An act of folly or weakness.
3.
Object of folly.

Definition 2024


foolery

foolery

English

Noun

foolery (plural fooleries)

  1. Foolish behaviour or speech.
    • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene 1,
      Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines every where.
    • 1836, Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, Chapter 9,
      Tradesmen and clerks, with fashionable novel-reading families, and circulating-library-subscribing daughters, get up small assemblies in humble imitation of Almack’s, and promenade the dingy ‘large room’ of some second-rate hotel with as much complacency as the enviable few who are privileged to exhibit their magnificence in that exclusive haunt of fashion and foolery.
    • 1910, John Millington Synge, Deirdre of the Sorrows, in Plays by John M. Synge, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1910, Act I, p. 319,
      Though you think, maybe, young men can do their fill of foolery and there is none to blame them.
    • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part Two, Chapter 1,
      He [] hurried off to the Centre, took part in the solemn foolery of a 'discussion group' []

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