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Fool's paradise   /fulz pˈɛrədˌaɪs/   Listen
noun
Fool  n.  
1.
One destitute of reason, or of the common powers of understanding; an idiot; a natural.
2.
A person deficient in intellect; one who acts absurdly, or pursues a course contrary to the dictates of wisdom; one without judgment; a simpleton; a dolt. " Extol not riches, then, the toil of fools." " Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other."
3.
(Script.) One who acts contrary to moral and religious wisdom; a wicked person. " The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."
4.
One who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments. " Can they think me... their fool or jester?"
April fool, Court fool, etc. See under April, Court, etc.
Fool's cap, a cap or hood to which bells were usually attached, formerly worn by professional jesters.
Fool's errand, an unreasonable, silly, profitless adventure or undertaking.
Fool's gold, iron or copper pyrites, resembling gold in color.
Fool's paradise, a name applied to a limbo (see under Limbo) popularly believed to be the region of vanity and nonsense. Hence, any foolish pleasure or condition of vain self-satistaction.
Fool's parsley (Bot.), an annual umbelliferous plant (Aethusa Cynapium) resembling parsley, but nauseous and poisonous.
To make a fool of, to render ridiculous; to outwit; to shame. (Colloq.)
To play the fool, to act foolishly; to act the buffoon; to act a foolish part. "I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly."



Paradise  n.  
1.
The garden of Eden, in which Adam and Eve were placed after their creation.
2.
The abode of sanctified souls after death. "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." "It sounds to him like her mother's voice, Singing in Paradise."
3.
A place of bliss; a region of supreme felicity or delight; hence, a state of happiness. "The earth Shall be all paradise." "Wrapt in the very paradise of some creative vision."
4.
(Arch.) An open space within a monastery or adjoining a church, as the space within a cloister, the open court before a basilica, etc.
5.
A churchyard or cemetery. (Obs.)
Fool's paradise. See under Fool, and Limbo.
Grains of paradise. (Bot.) See Melequeta pepper, under Pepper.
Paradise bird. (Zool.) Same as Bird of paradise. Among the most beautiful species are the superb (Lophorina superba); the magnificent (Diphyllodes magnifica); and the six-shafted paradise bird (Parotia sefilata). The long-billed paradise birds (Epimachinae) also include some highly ornamental species, as the twelve-wired paradise bird (Seleucides alba), which is black, yellow, and white, with six long breast feathers on each side, ending in long, slender filaments. See Bird of paradise in the Vocabulary.
Paradise fish (Zool.), a beautiful fresh-water Asiatic fish (Macropodus viridiauratus) having very large fins. It is often kept alive as an ornamental fish.
Paradise flycatcher (Zool.), any flycatcher of the genus Terpsiphone, having the middle tail feathers extremely elongated. The adult male of Terpsiphone paradisi is white, with the head glossy dark green, and crested.
Paradise grackle (Zool.), a very beautiful bird of New Guinea, of the genus Astrapia, having dark velvety plumage with brilliant metallic tints.
Paradise nut (Bot.), the sapucaia nut. See Sapucaia nut. (Local, U. S.)
Paradise whidah bird. (Zool.) See Whidah.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Fool's paradise" Quotes from Famous Books



... his (the Frenchman's) wife:—' Comment, Monsieur,—sans y etre oblige!' When I say this, however, I mean it only of the executive part of writing; for the imagining, the shadowing out of the future work is, I own, a delicious fool's paradise."] ...
— Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5 (of 6) • (Lord Byron) George Gordon Byron

... but my neighbourhood as well, was left in peace; even on our walks abroad we were guarded and prepared for; and, like great persons visiting a hospital, saw only the fair side. For the matter of a week we were thus suffered to go out and in and live in a fool's paradise, supposing the king to have kept his word, the tapu to be revived and the island ...
— In the South Seas • Robert Louis Stevenson

... before she saw that some appalling struggle for the possession of the little creature must have taken place, and that it had been going on during those months when life was apparently so peaceful and she had been living in her fool's paradise. It was not till he had lost the fight that Thor had come to her in the snow-bound woods with the twitter of birds and the deep music of the tree-tops accompanying those half-truths she had been eager to believe. ...
— The Side Of The Angels - A Novel • Basil King

... fool's paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad ...
— Essays, First Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... under the spell of her presence, back among the tricksters and assassins, the traps and ambushes of Wall Street, I believed again; believed firmly the promptings of the devil that possessed me. "She would have given you a brief fool's paradise," said that devil. "Then what a hideous awakening!" And I cursed the day when New York's insidious snobbishness had tempted my vanity into starting me on ...
— The Deluge • David Graham Phillips


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