a. [a. OF. fol hardi, comb. of fol foolish, FOOL a. with hardi bold, HARDY a.] Daring without judgment, foolishly adventurous or bold, rashly venturesome.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 62. Nis heo to muche cang, oðer to folherdi.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 665.
| Ȝyf þou were euer so fole hardy | |
| To swere grete oþys grysly, | |
| As we folys do alle day. |
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxx. 78. How dar ther ony man ben so fole hardy for to dampnen hym seluen, deceyuyng suche a persone by fauour of flaterye, or by vntrewe counceyll, sith that for grete tryst of grete trouthe he is assigned to that occupacion?
1508. Fisher, 7 Penit. Ps., Wks. 104. Good lorde thy wyll was to ouercome & exclude by this maner theyr folehardy Iugement ayenst thy mercyful sentence.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. 153. Jn Prisone he is inuadet throuch the audacitie of a rasche, ferce, and fulehardie ȝoung man, and be him thair he is slane.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 302. Nothing encourages him more in his Undertaking than his Ignorance, for he has not Wit enough to understand so much as the Difficulty of what he attempts; therefore he runs on boldly like a foolhardy Wit, and Fortune, that favours Fools and the Bold, sometimes takes Notice of him for his double Capacity, and receives him into her good Graces.
1796. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), II. 244. The Dons will suffer in every way for their folly, if they are really so fool-hardy as to go to war to please the French.
1860. J. G. Holland, Miss Gilbert, xxiv. 418. Do not be guilty of this foolhardy business again!
Hence Foolhardily adv. Also Foolhardihood, † Foolhardiship = FOOLHARDINESS.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 182. Vor moni makeð hire sec þuruh hire fol herdischipe.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Sam. xviii. 13. If I hadde doon aȝens my soul foolhardili.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XIX. iv. 127. Who, when they would not lend their helping hand to any man in engine-worke, nor making of bulwarkes and fortifications, used foole-hardily to sallie forth and fight most courageously, but came home fewer than they went.
1837. Southey, in Quarterly Review, LIX. 306. Two brothers had the fool-hardihood to wait till midnight in the church porch, on midsummer eve, and look through the key-hole, in the expectation, according to the popular belief, of seeing all those who were to die in the course of a year from that time enter the church.
1879. G. MacDonald, Sir Gibbie, xix. 102. What the books of law were, I would not foolhardily add to my many risks of blundering by presuming to recall; the history was mostly Scotish, or connected with Scotish affairs; the theology was entirely of the New England type of corrupted Calvinism, with which in Scotland they saddle the memory of great-souled, hard-hearted Calvin himself.
