🗓️ Idiom: Play the Fool (verb)
💬 Meaning
- To act in a silly or foolish way, often to entertain others.
- In a workplace setting: to pretend you don’t understand or to joke around when you’re expected to be serious.
🧠 Example Sentences
- During the team-warm-up, he played the fool by making funny noises, which relaxed everyone before the meeting.
- She decided to stop playing the fool during presentations and started preparing seriously.
- It’s fine to play the fool once in a while, but not during client meetings.
🏛️ Origin
The phrase “play the fool” comes from centuries of theatrical and social usage where a “fool” or jester would deliberately act silly. Over time, it entered everyday English to describe someone behaving foolishly or jokingly.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Before the big presentation, he decided to stop __________ and focus on his slides.
Answer
playing the fool
2. Choose the correct answer:
If someone “plays the fool” at work, they:
a) Always act professionally
b) Behave jokingly or act like they don’t understand
c) Ignore their tasks completely
Answer
b) Behave jokingly or act like they don’t understand
3. Change the sentence using “play the fool”:
“He messed around during the meeting instead of contributing.”
Answer
He was playing the fool during the meeting instead of contributing.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
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👉 Idioms for Humour in the Workplace
👉 Business English Idioms List
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