Definition of tomfoolery
: playful or foolish behavior
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Examples of tomfoolery in a Sentence
There was a lot of tomfoolery going on behind the scenes.
the open bar may have had something to do with the tomfoolery at the wedding reception
Recent Examples of tomfoolery from the Web
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Multiple people also pointed out the similarities between this tomfoolery and a scene from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in which Charlie rolls into a movie theater eating spaghetti out of a bag.
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Valencia and Soria then exchanged words — Valencia apparently was upset at Soria’s quick-pitch tomfoolery — before Servais came on to the edge of the field to shadow his first baseman back into the dugout.
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The rhyming names, the matching sailor suits, the tomfoolery of mistaken identities, the two-places-at-the-same-time movie plot — genetics for gags.
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AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky It’s been described as a cultural Chernobyl and a freak show fantasy, where music frequently takes a backseat to camp tomfoolery.
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AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky It’s been described as a cultural Chernobyl and a freak show fantasy, where music frequently takes a backseat to camp tomfoolery.
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FACEBOOK TWITTER EMAIL ME It’s been described as a cultural Chernobyl and a freak show fantasy, where music frequently takes a backseat to camp tomfoolery.
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Consider DJ Khaled's jet ski (mis)adventures the gateway drug to more entertaining tomfoolery straight out of Hollywood.
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Inside was Jawad Mustafa, one of the SWAT team’s ethnic Turkmen, a popular sergeant with a penchant for tomfoolery.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tomfoolery.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
In the Middle Ages, "Thome Fole" was a name assigned to those perceived to be of little intelligence. This eventually evolved into the spelling tomfool, which, when capitalized, also referred to a professional clown or a buffoon in a play or pageant. The name Tom seems to have been chosen for its common-man quality, much like "Joe Blow" for an ordinary person or "Johnny Reb" for a soldier in the Confederate army, but tomfoolery need not apply strictly to actions by men. In Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (1908), for example, Marilla Cuthbert complains of Anne: "She's gadding off somewhere with Diana, writing stories or practicing dialogues or some such tomfoolery, and never thinking once about the time or her duties."
First Known Use of tomfoolery
1812
TOMFOOLERY Defined for English Language Learners
tomfoolery
playDefinition of tomfoolery for English Language Learners
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: playful or silly behavior
TOMFOOLERY Defined for Kids
tomfoolery
playDefinition of tomfoolery for Students
: playful or foolish behavior
Learn More about tomfoolery
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for tomfoolery
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