fool
verb/fuːl/
/fuːl/
Verb Forms
Idioms Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they fool | /fuːl/ /fuːl/ |
| he / she / it fools | /fuːlz/ /fuːlz/ |
| past simple fooled | /fuːld/ /fuːld/ |
| past participle fooled | /fuːld/ /fuːld/ |
| -ing form fooling | /ˈfuːlɪŋ/ /ˈfuːlɪŋ/ |
- [transitive] to trick somebody into believing something that is not true
- fool somebody You don't fool me!
- She certainly had me fooled—I really believed her!
- fool yourself You're fooling yourself if you think none of this will affect you.
- fool somebody into doing something Don't be fooled into thinking they're going to change anything.
Extra ExamplesTopics Personal qualitiesb1- She's not easily fooled.
- Ha! Fooled you! You really thought I was going to jump, didn't you?
- She had me completely fooled for a moment.
- You can't fool me with all that nonsense!
- I'm not easily fooled by anyone, least of all you.
- He fooled them into thinking he was a detective.
- Just don't be fooled into investing any money with them.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- completely
- easily
- cannot
- try to
- into
- with
- have somebody fooled
- [intransitive] to say or do stupid or silly things, often in order to make people laugh
- fool (about/around) Stop fooling around and sit down!
- fool about/around with something If you fool about with matches, you'll end up getting burned.
Word Originverb Middle English: from Old French fol ‘fool, foolish’, from Latin follis ‘bellows, windbag’, by extension ‘empty-headed person’.
Idioms
See fool in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryyou could have fooled me
- (informal) used to say that you do not believe something that somebody has just told you
- ‘I'm trying as hard as I can!’ ‘You could have fooled me!’
Check pronunciation:
fool