Word.ws English Dictionary

played the fool

played the fool is the simple past and past participle of play the fool.

Meaning of play the fool

Verb

play the fool (third-person singular simple present plays the fool, present participle playing the fool, simple past and past participle played the fool)

  1. (idiomatic) To behave in a foolish or comical manner.
    • Back in school again, Maxwell plays the fool again
      Teacher gets annoyed1969, Paul McCartney, “Maxwell's Silver Hammer”, in Abbey Road, performed by The Beatles
  2. (idiomatic) To pretend or feign ignorance.
    • I play the fool when we're together
      But I cry when we're apart, yeah
      I couldn't do you no better
      Don't break what's left of my broken heart, baby1980, Prince, “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?”, in Prince

Questions about played the fool

What is played the fool the simple past and past participle of?
Played the fool is the simple past and past participle of play the fool.

Words near played the fool in the dictionary

  1. played the clitar
  2. played the deuce with
  3. played the devil with
  4. played the dickens with
  5. played the field
  6. played the fool
  7. played the game
  8. played the giddy goat
  9. played the giddy ox
  10. played the hand one was dealt
  11. played the man

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: played the fool (page history and authors); play the fool (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.

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Cite this entry: “played the fool.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/played_the_fool. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.