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A paltry fellow; a rogue; a ninny; a fool. [Obs. or Colloq.] "Thou scurvy patch." Shak. Patch ice, ice in overlapping pieces in the sea. -- Soft patch, a patch for covering a crack in a metallic vessel, as a steam boiler, consisting of soft material, as putty, covered and held in place by a plate bolted or riveted fas…

aving small sums while losing larger; -- used chiefly in the phrase, penny wise and pound foolish.

but thicker and rounder. It is sometimes taken in great numbers on the coast of England. Fools are as like husbands as pilchards are to herrings. Shak.

ry; contemptible; despicable. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Shak.

To talk much and to little purpose; to be loquacious; to speak foolishly; to babble. To prate and talk for life and honor. Shak. And make a fool presume to prate of love. Dryden.

Unexpectedly or foolishly brought on or hastened; rashly hurried; hasty; sudden; reckless. Jer. Taylor. "Precipitant rebellion." Eikon Basilike.

With rash or foolish haste; in headlong manner. Milton.

Contrary to nature or reason; not adapted to the end; utterly and glaringly foolish; unreasonably absurd; perverted. "Most preposterous conclusions." Shak. Preposterous ass, that never read so far! Shak.

To name in, or as, a proverb. [R.] Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool Milton.

title to, or properly in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent. It is foolish to lay out money in the purchase of repentance. Franklin.

To be bewildered, or perplexed. A puzzling fool, that heeds nothing. L'Estrange.

Agreeable to reason; not absurd, preposterous, extravagant, foolish, fanciful, or the like; wise; judicious; as, rational conduct; a rational man.

R.] There are infinite reveries and numberless extravagancies pass through both [wise and foolish minds]. Addison.

upported in motion; to rest. Strong as the exletree On which heaven rides. Shak. On whose foolish honesty My practices ride easy! Shak.

rse of passage; something extra or burdensome that is imposed. After the third reading, a foolish man stood up to propose a rider. Macaulay. This [question] was a rider which Mab found difficult to answer. A. S. Hardy.

A succession of confused or nonsencial statements; foolish talk; nonsense. [Colloq.] Often one's dear friend talks something which one scruples to call rigmarole. De Quincey.

A deliberately dishonest person; a knave; a cheat. The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise. Pope.

Called also dunbird, dundiver, ruddy diver, stifftail, spinetail, hardhead, sleepy duck, fool duck, spoonbill, etc. -- Ruddy plover (Zoöl.) the sanderling.

ds from cornfields; hence, anything terifying without danger. A scarecrow set to frighten fools away. Dryden.

e acts or language; -- often with at. Thuth from his lips prevailed with double sway, And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray. Goldsmith.