foolish
part of speech
adjective (foolish, more foolish, most foolish); adverb foolishly
meaning for a pupil
1) Foolish means silly or not sensible; showing poor judgement. tree →
2) To feel foolish is to feel silly or embarrassed. tree →
3) To look foolish is to seem stupid to others. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories and fables, foolish characters make bad choices and learn lessons. In safety talks, it is foolish to take risks like swimming alone. It is a softer word than «stupid». Phrases: a foolish mistake, feel foolish, it would be foolish to.
examples
- It was foolish to leave your bike unlocked. tree →
- I felt foolish when I fell over in front of everyone. tree →
- The foolish crow dropped its cheese. tree →
- Don't do anything foolish, like climbing on the roof. tree →
- He foolishly spent all his pocket money in one day. tree →
- It would be foolish to swim in a rough sea. tree →
- The king made a foolish promise. tree →
- "Ah, you foolish fellows!" he cried. tree →
note
Comparison usually «more foolish», «most foolish». Noun: fool, foolishness. «Foolish» is milder and more polite than «stupid» or «idiotic», but it can still hurt.
In the corpora
- The Mole's apology: «I am very sorry indeed for my foolish and ungrateful conduct ...
- Each time the Cat listens, says the animal is foolish, walks home by his wild lone, and tells nobody.
- "Silly" comes from Old English "sælig", meaning blessed or happy; it later meant innocent, and then foolish.
- That frustrateth the tokens of the imposters, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;
- But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the vanities by which they are instructed are but a stock;
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «foolish» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.