subs. (colloquial).—A dish of gooseberries, boiled with sugar and milk. [Fr., groseilles en foule.] Also, a GULL (q.v.).
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, III., 9. ‘Praise of the Dairy Maid.’
| A lady, I heard tell, | |
| Not far off did dwell, | |
| Made her husband a FOOL, and yet pleas’d him full well. |
1774. GOLDSMITH, Retaliation.
| That Hickey’s a capon, and by the same rule, | |
| Magnanimous Goldsmith’s a gooseberry FOOL. |
NO FOOL, subs. phr. (American colloquial).—A phrase laudatory, applied to neuter nouns. Cf., NO SLOUCH.
1848. W. T. THOMPSON, Major Jones’s Sketches of Travel, p. 32. I tell you what, Charlston aint NO FOOL of a city.
TO MAKE A FOOL OF, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To delude. Specifically (venery), to cuckold, or to seduce under promise of marriage.
TO FOOL ABOUT (or AROUND), verb. phr. (American).—To dawdle; to trifle with; to be infatuated with; to hang about; to defraud.
1837. A Glance at New York. Mose—Now look a-here, Liz,—I go in for Bill Sykes, ’cause he runs wid our machine; but he musn’t come FOOLIN’ ROUND my gal, or I’ll give him fits.
1884. HAWLEY SMART, From Post to Finish, ch. xvii. From what I hear, you came to Riddleton, FOOLING after my daughter. Now, I’ll have no caterwauling of that sort.
1890. A. C. GUNTER, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, p. 124. I should think you had too much ed-u-cash to FOOL ABOUT such a going on!
