▪ I. † ˈfolly, a. and adv. Obs.
Also 3–4 foli(e, folliche, (folik), 4–5 foly(e, 5 fooly, 6 follie, folyche.
[ME. follich, f. fol, fool a. and n. + -lich -ly1.]
A. adj. Foolish; also, lewd, unchaste.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 4361 (Cott.) ‘Bilete’, he said, ‘þi foli will’. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 233 A nyce folie couenant schulde nouȝt be i-holde. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 267 Ther ben manie foli lechis. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 52 No body shulde..make countenaunce nor lokes of foly loue there inne [the chirche], but yef it were of loue of mariage. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 305/1 Bankettings, dansings and other follie pastimes. 1604 Breton Pass. Sheph. (Grosart) 9/2 A Gowne of Veluet..Shall now bewitche mine eyes with folly gazes. |
B. adv. Foolishly; also, lewdly, unchastely.
| c 1230 Hali Meid. 17 Ȝif ȝe þrafter þenne speken togedere folliche. a 1300 Cursor M. 27890 (Cott.) Drunkenhede dos..man folik be traist and glad, quare he wit resun suld be radd. 1340 Ayenb. 43 Þet uolk þet ne byeþ naȝt ine spoushod, louieþ ham togidere folliche. c 1369 Chaucer Bk. Duchesse 874 Hyr lokynge nas not foly sprad. |
Hence † ˈfolliness, foolishness.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 1278 (Trin.), I was dryuen fro paradis And lost hit bi my folynys. c 1449 Pecock Repr. ii. iv. 155 The dotage or..folynes..of the persoones. c 1450 Burgh Secrees 2579 The rede [heerys] also be signe of ffoolynesse. |
▪ II. folly, n.1
(ˈfɒlɪ)
Pl. follies. Forms: 3–5 foli(e, 3–6 foly(e, (4 fole, folle, fowlye), 5 fooly, 6–7 follie, 9 south. volly, 5– folly.
[a. OF. and Fr. folie, f. fol, fou foolish, mad (see fool); corresponding to Pr. folia, follia, folhia, OSp. folia, It. follia.]
1. a. The quality or state of being foolish or deficient in understanding; want of good sense, weakness or derangement of mind; also, unwise conduct. † to do folly: to act foolishly. (fond, etc.) to a folly, to an absurd degree.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 52 Ant te wise ouh to uolewen wisdom, & nout folie. c 1330 Amis & Amll. 1982 ‘What foly’, he seyd, ‘can he sain? Is he madde of mode?’ 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 344 To fenyhe foly quhile is wyt. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 212 Þan it is folie for to lete him blood. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 127 To loue sapience, and to hate fooly. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon lxvi. 228 We haue done grete foly to departe. 1651 Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (Camden) 248 Sir Thomas Gardner will be ruined by his daughter's folly. 1742 Gray Ode Prospect Eton Coll. 100 Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xxiv. When lovely woman stoops to folly. 1778 Franklin Lett. Wks. 1889 VI. 206, I was fond to a folly of our British connections. 1784 Laura & Augustus I. 81 The people are hospitable to a folly. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 98 The folly of..nurses believes that the left hand is by nature different from the right. |
b. personified.
| 1594 Willobie in Shaks. C. Praise 9 And folly feedes where fury fretes. 1632 Milton Penseroso 2 Deluding joys, The brood of folly without father bred. 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 418 All was hush'd, as Folly's self lay dead. |
c. With a and pl. An example of foolishness; a foolish action, error, idea, practice, etc.; a ridiculous thing, an absurdity.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 4124 (Cott.) To stint wald he, if he moght, Þe foly þat his breþer thoght. 13.. Coer de L. 4761 We schole be wrothe, Swylke folyes yiff thou haunte. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon i. 21 Your father hath enterprised a great foly. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xcv. 308 They knew well it was but a folye to folow me. 1648 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 255 The celebrated follies of Bartholomew Fair. 1725 Watts Logic ii. v. §4 The mistakes, imprudences, and follies, which ourselves or others have been guilty of. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. i. i. 49 In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us. 1832 H. Martineau Life in Wilds vi. 72 'Tis a folly to expect it. |
† 2. a. Wickedness, evil, mischief, harm. Obs.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 30/36 He heold him faste in his folie. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 4119 He dede no man folye. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 357 Purgatory Whar saules er clensed of alle foly. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon iii. 80 Ye shall haue no leiser for to repente you of the folie that ye doo. 1535 Coverdale Josh. vii. 15 Because he hath..committed folye in Israel. |
† b. With a and pl. A wrong-doing, sin, crime.
| c 1250 Meid. Maregrete 1 Olde ant yonge i prei ou oure folies for to lete. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xvii. 135 Hit [Pouerte] defendeþ þe flessh fro folyes ful menye. 1535 Coverdale Judg. xx. 6 They haue done an abhominacion and folye in Israel. |
† 3. a. Lewdness, wantonness. Cf. Fr. folie. Obs.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 2961 Ȝyf þou to foly wuldest here wynne. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) iv. 24 A comoun woman that dwelled there to resceyve men to folye. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 76 The quene..beganne to desire to haue hym to foly with her. 1567 Fenton Trag. Disc. A a vij, Neyther had age so altered her complexion but there appered follie in all partes of her face. 1604 Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 132 Oth. She turn'd to folly; and she was a whore. 1634 Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 291 One which calls a woman, ‘Whore’..and commits folly with her. |
b. With a and pl. A lewd action or desire.
| c 1305 Miracle St. James 3 in E.E.P. (1862) 57 He dude ane folie Þat menie to helle bringeþ: þe sinne of lecherie. c 1320 Sir Tristr. 2181 Her folies vsen þai ay. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 91 Whose..deliberate word Nips youth i'th head, and follies doth emmew. |
† 4. Madness, insanity, mania (= F. folie); hence, rage, anger. Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 1957 He frothet for folle, and his face chaunget. 1670 R. Lassels Voy. Italy ii. 212, I went to the Pazzorella, where they keep madmen and fooles, and saw there strange variety of humours in folly. |
5. a. A popular name for any costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder.
R. Wendover says that when (in 1228) a castle which Hubert de Burgh had begun to build, near the Welsh border, had to be razed to the ground on account of a treaty concluded with the Welsh, much amusement was excited by the recollection that Hubert had given to the building on its foundation the name of Hubert's Folly (Stultitiam Huberti). It was remarked that he had shown himself a true prophet. Probably the word used by Hubert was F. folie; the original meaning seems to have been not stultitia, but ‘delight’, ‘favourite abode’. Many houses in France still bear the name La Folie, and there is some evidence that ‘the Folly’ was as late as the nineteenth century used in some parts of England for a public pleasure-garden or the like.
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 502 [He] buryeth it [his wealth]..in Buildings needlesse, vain, or ill contrived, that stay but the finishing, and being called by his kind Gossip-neighbours his Folly. 1772 R. Graves Spirit. Quixote III. ix. vii, An object, amidst the woods, on the edge of the hill; which, upon enquiry, they were told was called Shenstone's folly. 1796 Monthly Mag. Feb. 20, I built a great many mounds in the form of sugar-loaves, very broad at bottom and pointed at top..Travellers call them my folly. 1801 Coxe Tour Monmouthsh. I. 121 Hence it was called Kemeys Folly. 1885 W. H. Russell in Harper's Mag. Apr. 752/1 ‘The Heights’, on which the Folly is built. |
b. pl. A revue notable for the glamour of its female performers; used esp. as a title, as Ziegfeld Follies; also, the female members of such a revue.
| [1880 J. Stirling tr. Zola's Nana v. 104 Maria Blond—a girl of fifteen—frightfully thin and frightfully vicious, who had just made her début at the Folies.] 1908 Theatre Mag. (U.S.) Aug. 201/1 In novelty of ideas, variety, talent of performers and general smartness of production, ‘Follies of 1908’ is fully up to the standard of the best this enterprising..young manager [sc. Ziegfeld] has yet attempted. 1917 R. W. Lardner Gullible's Travels (1926) iv. 202 They wouldn't nobody of ever mistook the women for Follies chorus girls. 1919 F. Hurst Humoresque 300 The Moncrieff Follies—twenty-four of them, not counting two specialty acts and a pair of whistling Pierrots—burst forth into frolic. 1929 H. Miles tr. Morand's Black Magic i. 71 Head-dresses worthy of the Ziegfeld Follies. 1957 ‘Gypsy Rose Lee’ Gypsy xxxiv. 309 Julie Bryan, my understudy in the Follies (less experienced than the maid), went to work as featured strip teaser for the Minskys. 1965 P. Ziegfeld Ziegfelds' Girl ii. 43 The first Ziegfeld Follies opened at the Apollo Theater in Atlantic City and came to New York in July of 1907. |
6. Comb., as folly-blind, folly-drenched, † folly-fallen, folly-painting, folly-stricken adjs.
| 1597 Middleton Paraphr. Wisd. Sol. ix. 6 My raigne would be like fortunes, follie-blinde. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. i. 75 For folly that he wisely shewes is fit; But wisemens folly falne, quite taint their wit. 1638–48 G. Daniel Eclog. iii. 307 Thy follie-drenched Soule. 1726–46 Thomson Winter 615 Lively wit..Or folly-painting humour. 1807 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) I. 80/2 The mournful and folly-stricken blockhead. |
Hence ˈfolly v. intr., to commit folly, to act foolishly. ˈfollying vbl. n. also attrib.
| 1818 Keats Endymion i. 612 Let me shun Such follying before thee. 1822 B. Cornwall Ludovico Sforza i. 95 What! shall I in My age be follying? ― A. Wentworth ii. 27, In my follying days. |
▪ III. ˈfolly, n.2 dial.
A clump of fir-trees on the crest of a hill.
| 1880 R. Jefferies Gr. Ferne F. vi, ‘Every hill seems to have a Folly’..‘I mean a clump of trees on the top.’ 1888 Berks. Gloss., There are three such ‘vollys’ at Hampstead Norreys on the ‘Volly Hill’. |