Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A stupid or foolish person.
  • adjective Extremely foolish or stupid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A silly fool; a trifler: also used attributively.
  • noun The Jamaican rainbird, Saurothera vetula.
  • To act foolishly find triflingly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A great fool; a trifler.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective silly or stupid
  • noun a silly or stupid person

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person who lacks good judgment

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Tom (nickname for Thomas) + fool.]

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Examples

  • Dalrymple really meant what he had said and would stick to it, she need not mind being called a tomfool by her mother.

    The Last Chronicle of Barset 2004

  • If Dalrymple really meant what he had said and would stick to it, she need not mind being called a tomfool by her mother.

    The Last Chronicle of Barset Anthony Trollope 1848

  • What you want to do is get behind my tomfool words and get a feel of the man that's behind them.

    Chapter XIV 2010

  • And you don't need much strategy, so you don't have to buy one of those tomfool microphone headsets.

    Channel Your Inner Net Jackass in Team Fortress 2 2007

  • And you don't need much strategy, so you don't have to buy one of those tomfool microphone headsets.

    Channel Your Inner Net Jackass in 'Team Fortress 2' 2007

  • Only one of them, a little man with a wrathful air, in a sheepskin coat wide open, and a lambswool cap pulled right over his eyes, on coming up to the gingerbread man, suddenly inquired: ‘How much is the gingerbread, you tomfool?’

    The Diary of a Superfluous Man and other stories 2006

  • I gave each a mocking salute, driven by I don't know what tomfool bravado.

    The Black Company Cook, Glen 1984

  • "Why do you let that great tomfool call you by your first name, Mary?" he demanded, almost before the front door was shut.

    The Nest Builder Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale

  • I had just got as far as that, when the gentleman said "Pshaw!" and then he told me to run off, and not come into the church again to tomfool -- that's what he said.

    Odd Amy le Feuvre

  • I don't like to apply such a tomfool word to anything, but observe how all this has come about.

    Master of His Fate J. Mclaren Cobban

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