folly
Foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicalityFoolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality.
Recorded US: Dvortygirl, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
» There's always something good in human folly.
У людському божевіллі завжди є щось добре. — aandrusiak
Scott · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRTranslations
7 languagesBy meaning 2
By meaning 3
Examples
34 sentencesThere's always something good in human folly.
У людському божевіллі завжди є щось добре. — aandrusiak
What a piece of folly!
Яка дурниця! — deniko
deWas für eine Dummheit! — Merle
It's folly to eat so much.
ruГлупо столько есть. — Hellerick
deEs ist dumm, so viel zu essen. — Tamy
Meaning
4 senses(countable, uncountable)Foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality.
It would be folly to walk all that way, knowing the shops are probably shut by now.
Torheit, Narrheit, Dummheit
глу́постьglúpostʹ, недомы́слиеnedomýslije, дурьdurʹ
(countable, uncountable)Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence.
The purchase of Alaska from Russia was termed Seward's folly.
Fahrlässigkeit, Eselei, Unsinn
безрассу́дствоbezrassúdstvo, при́хотьpríxotʹ, блажьblažʹ
(countable, uncountable)A fanciful building built for purely ornamental reasons.
A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.
Zierbau, Prunkbau
A clump of trees, particularly one on the crest of a hill (or sometimes on a stretch of open ground).
- the trait of acting stupidly or rashly
- a stupid mistake
- the quality of being rash and foolish
- foolish or senseless behavior
Origin
Inherited from Middle English folie, from Old French folie (“madness”), from the adjectiveInherited from Middle English folie, from Old French folie (“madness”), from the adjective fol (“mad, insane”).
Uncertain. The most common theory is that term primarily denotes a clump of trees and relates to French feuille, feuillée and English foliage; it has also been suggested that it refers to some perceived connection or resemblance of the named place to an architectural folly, but many places so named have no architectural follies and cannot be named directly for them.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: folliesSynonyms
11 synonyms- the trait of acting stupidly or rashly:foolishnessunwiseness
- a stupid mistake:stupiditybetisefoolishnessimbecility
- the quality of being rash and foolish:foolishnesscrazinessmadness
- foolish or senseless behavior:foolerytomfoolerycrazinesslunacyindulgence
Antonyms
1 antonymsWord family
6 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.