[f. prec. after FOOLERY.] The action or behaviour of a tom-fool; foolish or absurd action; silly trifling.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., Punch’s Apotheosis. Round let us bound, for this is Punch’s holyday: Glory to Tomfoolery, huzza! huzza!
1899. A. Dobson, Paladin of Philanth., iii. 65. That solemn tomfoolery, the Stratford Jubilee of 1769.
b. With a and pl. An instance of this; an action, practice, or thing of a foolish or absurd kind.
1840. T. A. Trollope, Summ. in Brittany, I. 58. One of those solemn tom-fooleries which so much delighted the middle ages.
1862. Miss Yonge, C’tess Kate, xii. Come, don’t make a tomfoolery of it.
1885. Huxley, in L. Huxley, Life (1900), II. vi. 91. How grown men can lend themselves to such elaborate tomfooleries.
So Tom-foolish a., of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a tom-fool; hence Tom-foolishness.
1799. Southey, Nondescripts, viii. A man he is by nature merry, Somewhat Tom-foolish, and comical, very.
1861. Nashville Union & American, 5 April, 2/3. They [the Confederate states] have ignored all those abominations and tom-foolishness which the Black Republicans and their sympathizers said would mark their policy [of succession].
1870. Missouri Republican, 23 Feb., 2/6. It was all tom-foolishness, such talk. Give me the ballot-box, so that when I don’t like a thing I can go and put in my vote, and it will kill the white man’s vote who favors the measure.
1889. J. K. Jerome, Three Men in Boat, v. Of all the irritating silly tomfoolishness by which we are plagued, this ‘weather-forecast’ fraud is about the most aggravating.
