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Harmless; innocent; inoffensive. [Obs.] "This silly, innocent Custance." Chaucer. The silly virgin strove him to withstand. Spenser. A silly, innocent hare murdered of a dog. Robynson (More's Utopia).

A caul. See Caul, n., 3. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.]

See Unsely. [Obs.]

Resembling a goose; silly; simple. Sydney Smith.

qualities of an ape; prone to imitate in a servile manner. Hence: Apelike; fantastically silly; foppish; affected; trifling. The apish gallantry of a fantastic boy. Sir W. Scott.

Custody; keeping. [Obs.] Silly Faunus now within their bail. Spenser.

Without understanding; silly; thougthless; witless. -- Brain"less*ness, n.

leaves of a cabbage; -- contemptuously or humorously, and colloquially, a very stupid and silly person; a numskull. -- Cabbage palmetto, a species of palm tree (Sabal Palmetto) found along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. -- Cabbage rose (Bot.), a species of rose (Rosa centifolia) having large and heavy blos…

To talk in a silly manner; to prattle. Johnson.

An awkward or silly boy or young man; any silly person; a dolt. [Colloq.] Some silly, doting, brainless calf. Drayton.

ere there is true friendship there needs none. Shak. Al ceremonies are in themselves very silly things; but yet a man of the world should know them. Chesterfield.

A stupid fellow; a simpleton; as, a silly coot. [Colloq.]

A vain, showy fellow; a conceited, silly man, fond of display; a superficial pretender to knowledge or accomplishments; a fop. Fond to be seen, she kept a bevy Of powdered coxcombs at her levee. Goldsmith. Some are bewildered in the maze of schools, And some made coxcombs, nature meant but fools. Pope.…

books of argument. Locke. Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. 2. Tim. iii. 6.

Foolish; silly; trifling. [R.]

To be weak-minded, silly, or idiotic; to have the intellect impaired, especially by age, so that the mind wanders or wavers; to drivel. Time has made you dote, and vainly tell Of arms imagined in your lonely cell. Dryden. He survived the use of his reason, grew infatuated, and doted long before he died. South.…

That dotes; silly; excessively fond. -- Dot"ing*ly, adv. -- Dot"ing*ness, n.

A silly fellow; a dupe; a gull. Barrow.

actice on experience called themselves empirics. Krauth-Fleming. Swallow down opinions as silly people do empirics' pills. Locke.

Timorous; feeble-minded. [Obs.] "A fainting, silly creature." Arbuthnot.