The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural follies
Foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality. examples
Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence. quotations examples
Thames Water has become the latest object lesson in the predictable and predicted folly of privatised monopolies, aided by a regulator that’s an even bigger wet wipe than the fatbergs bunging up the sewers.
2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian
(architecture) A fanciful building built for purely ornamental reasons. quotations examples
“The Villa Straylight,” said a jeweled thing on the pedestal, in a voice like music, “is a body grown in upon itself, a Gothic folly. […] ”
1984, William Gibson, chapter 14, in Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, page 172
It has been a long time since new follies were springing up across the great estates of Britain. But the owners of Doddington Hall, in Lincolnshire, have brought the folly into the 21st century, by building a 30ft pyramid in the grounds of the Elizabethan manor.
2014 September 7, “Doddington's garden pyramid is a folly good show”, in The Daily Telegraph, London
A great deal of eccentricity was expressed through the trend for ruin follies. But it wasn’t only the madness of paranoid earls and fashionable landowners that was encoded in them.
2018 April 18, Paul Cooper, “Europe Was Once Obsessed With Fake Dilapidated Buildings”, in The Atlantic
A pinkish-red color. examples
third-person singular simple present follies, present participle follying, simple past and past participle follied
(dialectal) To follow. quotations examples
"You got any money?" he said to me. ¶ "Hell no, maybe enough for a pint of whisky till I get to Denver. What about you?" ¶ "I know where I can get some." ¶ "Where?" "Anywhere. You can always folly a man down an alley, can't you?"
1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Penguin, published 1976, page 23
"Anybody got the makin's?" he said. "That's one hell of a thick bunch of canvas, but I follied the seam."
2002, Richard Kilroy O'Malley, Hobo: A Depression Odyssey, page 104
Howandever, at the selfsame time, there was a gang of fellas from the valley of kings follying the very same pointy star. And didn't that pointy star point them king-fellas in the direction of Mary's cowstable.
2012, Honor Molloy, Smarty Girl: Dublin Savage, Boston, M.A.: Gemma, page 43