a. [f. FOP sb. + -ISH.]
† 1. Resembling or befitting a ‘fop’ or fool; foolish, silly. Obs.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. iv. 183.
| Fooles had nere lesse grace in a yeere, | |
| For wisemen are growne foppish, | |
| And know not how their wits to weare, | |
| Their manners are so apish. |
1657. G. Starkey, Helmont’s Vind., Ep. to Rdr. I to make it appear that I am not ignorant of your way and method, oppose your Diaeticall prescriptions as foppish, your Bloud-letting, Scarifications, Vesications, Fontinels, either by cautery, or knife, to be cruel, needlesse dotages, so far are they from being the prescriptions of true Art.
a. 1720. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), I. 25.
| Now, all ye wiser thoughts, away, | |
| In vain your tale ye tell | |
| Of patient hopes, and dull delay, | |
| Love’s foppish part; farewel. |
2. Resembling or befitting a fop or dandy.
1699. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), II. 366. He was a vain foppish young man, who made a great éclat about town by his splendid equipage and boundless expense.
1734. Fielding, Intrig. Chambermaid, I. iv. Your terrible ungenteel air: this is a grand obstacle with her, who is dotingly fond of everything that is fine and foppish.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 137. We must either condemn all such instances of generosity, as foppish and affected, or admit of gallantry among the rest.
1836. J. Grant, Random Recoll. Ho. Lords, xv. 366. There is nothing foppish in his dress, nor affected in his manners.
1872. Baker, Nile Tribut., xvii. 306–7. Upon a near approach, he immediately dismounted, and advanced towards us, bowing in a most foppish manner.
Comb.
1863. Miss Braddon, Eleanor’s Vict., II. xix. 279. He was short and stout, smartly dressed, and foppish-looking even in his travelling costume.
Hence Foppishly adv.; Foppishness.
1611. Cotgr., Sotise … absurditie, follie, foppishnesse.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., ¶ 252. Whatever the schools foppishly prattle concerning their whimsey of Catarrhs and Fontanells of their own christening.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, IV. 338. That Foppishness of Dress and Appearance, which distinguishes the Petits-maitres and French ushers.
1876. J. Saunders, Lion in Path, xvi. A young man foppishly dressed, with a handsome but rather gloomy face.
1886. J. K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts, 153. A little foppishness in a young man is good; it is human.
