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Antonyms for fooling around

Grammar : Verb
Spell : fool
Phonetic Transcription : ful

Definition of fooling around

Origin :
  • late 13c., "silly or stupid person," from Old French fol "madman, insane person; idiot; rogue; jester," also "blacksmith's bellows," also an adjective meaning "mad, insane" (12c., Modern French fou), from Latin follis "bellows, leather bag" (see follicle); in Vulgar Latin used with a sense of "windbag, empty-headed person." Cf. also Sanskrit vatula- "insane," literally "windy, inflated with wind."
  • The word has in mod.Eng. a much stronger sense than it had at an earlier period; it has now an implication of insulting contempt which does not in the same degree belong to any of its synonyms, or to the derivative foolish. [OED]
  • Meaning "jester, court clown" first attested late 14c., though it is not always possible to tell whether the reference is to a professional entertainer or an amusing lunatic on the payroll. As the name of a kind of custard dish, it is attested from 1590s (the food also was called trifle, which may be the source of the name).
  • There is no foole to the olde foole [Heywood, 1546]
  • Feast of Fools (early 14c.), from Medieval Latin festum stultorum) refers to the burlesque festival celebrated in some churches on New Year's Day in medieval times. Fool's gold "iron pyrite" is from 1829. Fool's paradise "state of illusory happiness" is from mid-15c. Foolosopher, a most useful insult, turns up in a 1549 translation of Erasmus. Fool's ballocks is described in OED as "an old name" for the green-winged orchid.
  • verb waste time
Example sentences :
  • "Diablo's a dangerous place to be fooling around at this time of the year," he said.
  • Extract from : « El Diablo » by Brayton Norton
  • Why not walk home, and see if anybody has been fooling around the spur we found.
  • Extract from : « Down the Slope » by James Otis
  • You lemme catch you fooling around that school again, you hear?
  • Extract from : « Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete » by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
  • This is a bad place to be fooling around in when it is dark.
  • Extract from : « The Battleship Boys in Foreign Service » by Frank Gee Patchin
  • "I was fooling around a little with the Twentieth Maine," was the reply.
  • Extract from : « The Awakening of the Desert » by Julius C. Birge
  • He is my game and I do not propose to have you fooling around.
  • Extract from : « Windy McPherson's Son » by Sherwood Anderson
  • So he came to investigate, and Hendrix caught him fooling around.
  • Extract from : « Let'em Breathe Space » by Lester del Rey
  • "We've been fooling around long enough, Senator," Moran interrupted sullenly, nursing his throbbing wrist.
  • Extract from : « Hidden Gold » by Wilder Anthony
  • But I mean when I was fooling around the earth, jumping from job to job, and helling all over town between whiles.
  • Extract from : « The Virginian » by Owen Wister
  • I'd been fooling around with crystal growing, trying to design some new type transistors.
  • Extract from : « The Great Gray Plague » by Raymond F. Jones

Synonyms for fooling around

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019