befool

English

Etymology

From Middle English bifolen, equivalent to be- +‎ fool.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪˈfuːl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /bɪˈfʉl/
• Rhymes: -uːl

Verb

befool (third-person singular simple present befools, present participle befooling, simple past and past participle befooled)

1. (transitive, archaic) To make a fool out of (someone); to fool, trick, or deceive (someone).
   • 1605, Joseph Hall, Meditations and Vowes, Diuine and Morall‎^[1], London: John Porter, section 63:

     Nothing doth so befoole a man as extreme passion; this doth both make them fooles, which otherwise are not; and show them to be fooles that are so […]

   • 1637 July (date delivered), Robert Sanderson, “[Ad Aulam.] Sermon VI. Otelands, July 1637.”, in XXXIV Sermons. […], 5th edition, London: […] [A. Clark] for A. Seil, and are to be sold by G. Sawbridge, […], published 1671, →OCLC, paragraph 10, page 81:

     [T]hey ſettle upon their ovvn dregs, and grovv muddy and muſty vvith long eaſe, and their proſperity befooleth them to their ovvn deſtruction.

   • 1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], chapter XL, in The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC:

     Flattery is their nature—to coax, flatter and sweetly befool some one is every woman’s business.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     "How can a woman live two thousand years? Why dost thou befool me, oh Queen?"

   • 1901, Andrew Lang, “The Fairy of the Dawn”, in The Violet Fairy Book‎^[2]:

     But above all beware never to look the Fairy of the Dawn in the face, for she has eyes that will bewitch you, and glances that will befool you.

   • 2009 July 13, “BJP workers stage protest after leader dies in hospital”, in Times of India, retrieved 29 May 2013:

     They alleged Dr Sidhu had no specialization in reducing weight and was only befooling innocent people.

Usage notes

• Although archaic in Western countries, this verb is still current in the English of South Asia.

Derived terms

• befoolment
• unbefool

Translations

to fool, trick or deceive someone

• Bulgarian: измамвам (bg) (izmamvam), заблуждавам (bg) (zabluždavam)
• Icelandic: hafa að fífli, blekkja (is), pretta, gabba (is)
• Maori: hangarau
• Swahili: pumbaza