Part 253

This may prove food to my displeasure.

Shak.

In this moment there is life and food For future years.

Wordsworth.

Food is often used adjectively or in self-explaining compounds, as in food fish or food-fish, food supply.

Food vacuole (Zoˆl.), one of the spaces in the interior of a protozoan in which food is contained, during digestion. -- Food yolk. (Biol.) See under Yolk.

Syn. -- Aliment; sustenance; nutriment; feed; fare; victuals; provisions; meat.

Food, v. t. To supply with food. [Obs.] Baret.

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Food"ful (?), a. Full of food; supplying food; fruitful; fertile. "The foodful earth." Dryden.

Bent by its foodful burden [the corn].

Glover.

Food"less, a. Without food; barren. Sandys.

Food"y (?), a. Eatable; fruitful. [R.] Chapman.

Fool (?), n. [Cf. F. fouler to tread, crush. Cf. 1st Foil.] A compound of gooseberries scalded and crushed, with cream; -- commonly called gooseberry fool.

Fool, n. [OE. fol, n. & adj., F. fol, fou, foolish, mad; a fool, prob. fr. L. follis a bellows, wind bag, an inflated ball; perh. akin to E. bellows. Cf. Folly, Follicle.] 1. One destitute of reason, or of the common powers of understanding; an idiot; a natural.

2. A person deficient in intellect; one who acts absurdly, or pursues a course contrary to the dictates of wisdom; one without judgment; a simpleton; a dolt.

Extol not riches, then, the toil of fools.

Milton.

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.

Franklin.

3. (Script.) One who acts contrary to moral and religious wisdom; a wicked person.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

Ps. xiv. 1.

4. One who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments.

Can they think me . . . their fool or jester?

Milton.

April fool, Court fool, etc. See under April, Court, etc. -- Fool's cap, a cap or hood to which bells were usually attached, formerly worn by professional jesters. -- Fool's errand, an unreasonable, silly, profitless adventure or undertaking. -- Fool's gold, iron or copper pyrites, resembling gold in color. -- Fool's paradise, a name applied to a limbo (see under Limbo) popularly believed to be the region of vanity and nonsense. Hence, any foolish pleasure or condition of vain self-satistaction. -- Fool's parsley (Bot.), an annual umbelliferous plant (∆thusa Cynapium) resembling parsley, but nauseous and poisonous. -- To make a fool of, to render ridiculous; to outwit; to shame. [Colloq.] -- To play the fool, to act the buffoon; to act a foolish part. "I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly." 1 Sam. xxvi. 21.