folly
UK /ˈfɒli/ · US /ˈfɑli/ noun, verb
Forms follies follying follied
- noun 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.”
- noun Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence. “The purchase of Alaska from Russia was termed Seward's folly.”
- noun (architecture) 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.”
- verb (dialectal) To follow.
- noun (largely obsolete outside place names) A clump of trees, particularly one on the crest of a hill (or sometimes on a stretch of open ground).
Synonyms
foolishness unwiseness stupidity betise imbecility craziness madness foolery tomfoolery lunacy indulgence
Antonyms
Etymology
Inherited 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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The state of being foolish; want of good sense; levity, weakness, or derangement of mind.
- noun A foolish act; an inconsiderate or thoughtless procedure; weak or light-minded conduct; foolery.
Etymology [OE. folie, foli, F. folie, fr. fol, fou, foolish, mad. See Fool.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “folly”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details