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What is the difference between fool and silly?

fool | silly |

As nouns the difference between fool and silly

is that fool is a person with poor judgment or little intelligence while silly is a silly person; a fool.

As a verb fool

is to trick; to make a fool of someone.

As an adjective silly is

pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless.

fool

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (pejorative) A person with poor judgment or little intelligence.
    • You were a fool to cross that busy road without looking.
    The village fool threw his own shoes down the well.
  • * Franklin
    • Experience keeps a dear school, but fools' will learn in no ' other .
  • (historical) A jester; a person whose role was to entertain a sovereign and the court (or lower personages).
  • (informal) Someone who derives pleasure from something specified.
  • * Milton
    • Can they think me their fool or jester?
  • * 1975 , , "Fool for the City" (song), Fool for the City (album):
    • I'm a fool for the city.
  • (cooking) A type of dessert made of d fruit and custard or cream.
    • an apricot fool'''; a gooseberry '''fool
  • A particular card in a tarot deck.

    • Synonyms

    * (person with poor judgment) See also * (person who entertained a sovereign) jester, joker * (person who talks a lot of nonsense) gobshite

    Verb

  • To trick; to make a fool of someone.
  • To play the fool; to trifle; to toy; to spend time in idle sport or mirth.
  • * Dryden
    • Is this a time for fooling ?

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * befool * fool about * fool around * foolhardy * foolish * foolishness * foolometer * fool's errand * fool's gold * fool's paradise * foolproof * more fool you * play the fool * suffer fools gladly * there's no fool like an old fool

    References

    1000 English basic words ----

    silly

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (label) Pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , I.vi:
    • A silly man, in simple weedes forworne, / And soild with dust of the long dried way; / His sandales were with toilesome trauell torne, / And face all tand with scorching sunny ray
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
    • After long storms with which my silly bark was tossed sore.
  • * (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)
    • The silly buckets on the deck.
  • (label) Simple, unsophisticated, ordinary; rustic, ignorant.
  • * 1633 , (John Donne), "Sapho to Philænis":
    • For, if we justly call each silly man'' / A ''little island , What shall we call thee than?
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • A fourth man, in a silly habit.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • All that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.
  • Foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom; frivolous, trifling.
  • Irresponsible, showing irresponsible behaviors.
  • Semiconscious, witless.
  • (label) Of a fielding position, very close to the batsman; closer than short.
  • Simple, not intelligent, unrefined.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
    • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=“Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke
  • (label) Happy; fortunate; blessed.
    • (Chaucer)
  • (label) Harmless; innocent; inoffensive.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
    • The silly virgin strove him to withstand.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
    • A silly , innocent hare murdered of a dog.

    Derived terms

    * sillily (adverb) * silly season

    Antonyms

    * ("playful"): pious

    Synonyms

    * ("playful"): charming

    Noun

    (sillies)
  • (colloquial) A silly person; a fool.
  • (colloquial) A mistake.

    • Anagrams

    * * * 1000 English basic words