Word.ws English Dictionary

fool's errand

fool's errand noun: a foolish undertaking, especially one that is purposeless, fruitless, nonsensical, or certain to fail.

Noun

fool's errand (plural fools' errands)

  1. (idiomatic) A foolish undertaking, especially one that is purposeless, fruitless, nonsensical, or certain to fail.
    • If I were to travel only that I might be discontented with that which I can get at home, methinks I should go but on a fool's errand.1821, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 1, in Kenilworth
    • Shultz took little notice of the Soviet view or that of others who said his Middle East mission was a fool's errand. "You can't be too afraid of failing," said the 67-year-old diplomat.1988 March 7, Michael S. Serrill, “Diplomacy To Dream the Impossible Dream”, in Time, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2013
  2. (idiomatic) Such an undertaking, assigned as a prank.
    • Meronyms: blinker fluid, key to the midway, left-handed monkey wrench, muffler bearing, skyhook
    • Near-synonym: wild-goose chase

Synonyms of fool's errand

All synonyms of fool's errand

Forms of fool's errand

pluralfools' errands

Origin of fool's errand

First use apppears c. the 18th century.

Questions about fool's errand

What does fool's errand mean?
Fool's errand means a foolish undertaking, especially one that is purposeless, fruitless, nonsensical, or certain to fail.
What part of speech is fool's errand?
Fool's errand is a noun.
What is the plural of fool's errand?
The plural of fool's errand is fools' errands.

Words near fool's errand in the dictionary

  1. fool's acres
  2. fool's bargain
  3. fool's cap
  4. fool's cicely
  5. fool's cress
  6. fool's errand
  7. fool's fool
  8. fool's gold
  9. fool's huckleberry
  10. fool's mate
  11. fool's mates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fool's errand (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-fool's errand.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fool's errand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fool%27s_errand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.