(n.) The state of being foolish; want of good sense; levity, weakness, or derangement of mind.
(n.) A foolish act; an inconsiderate or thoughtless procedure; weak or light-minded conduct; foolery.
(n.) Scandalous crime; sin; specifically, as applied to a woman, wantonness.
(n.) The result of a foolish action or enterprise.
Example Sentences:
(1) It is a folly to think measures to fix eurozone governance will suffice, however needed those may be.
(2) A senior Conservative cabinet minister has issued a warning to leaders "of all political parties" that putting Britain's membership of the European Union at risk would be "complete folly" and that the "irresponsible" debate taking place is damaging the country's influence at the negotiating table.
(3) Whenever I hear about David Blunkett's tests for new immigrants, I think of my mother's initial impressions and don't know whether to laugh or cry: laugh because of the patent folly of his attempts to fix what is fluid and to codify what is contested in British identity; or cry at the racism that has inspired it, the nationalism that informs it, and the historical, political and cultural illiteracy that infects every part of it.
(4) Vice, folly and humbug – it is the point of satire really.
(5) Honor & Folly ( honorandfolly.com , one bedroom $165 a night, both bedrooms $215, plus a sofabed for children) is a home away from home with a fully stocked kitchen and a cosy living area decorated with vintage and locally crafted furniture.
(6) His friend Dingle Foot drafted an editorial that David then sharpened up, inserting phrases that summed up his outlook: 'We had not realised that our government was capable of such folly and crookedness...It is no longer possible to bomb countries because you fear that your trading interests will be harmed...this new feeling for the sanctity of human life is the best element in the modern world.'
(7) ‘Patriotism’ is a difficult concept to pin, and one man’s patriotism can easily be misjudged as folly or even treachery if we start judging based on a narrow understanding of the term.” Walid, a Muslim veteran of the navy, added that “even though we invaded Iraq based upon bogus information, that doesn’t diminish the sacrifice of Captain Khan and other American service members who lost their lives”.
(8) A few years before Lady Thatcher and Mr Letwin became obsessed with the poll tax, the American historian Barbara Tuchman wrote a book about the march of folly in human affairs from the Trojan to the Vietnamese war.
(9) To continue along this path of folly is not compatible with the maintenance of wealth, nor with the health of humans or the biosphere.
(10) At 568,969, the paper’s circulation had recently overtaken that of its old rival, the Sunday Times : it’s not true that it plummeted after Suez as a result of the outrage caused by Astor adding the line: “We had not realised that our government was capable of such folly and such crookedness” to Dingle Foot’s leader – but well-heeled middle-class readers who cancelled their subscriptions were replaced by relatively impoverished students and leftwing intellectuals.
(11) Some startlingly grand privately owned buildings have repeatedly appeared on the annual register of the most important listed buildings at risk – virtually all the HHA properties are listed, and many are also scheduled ancient monuments or set in grade I gardens – including garden buildings and follies at Castle Howard in Yorkshire and Frogmore mausoleum, which holds some of the Queen's ancestors, in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
(12) In London, the Times newspaper called Ford’s position denying aid to New York City an “act of monumental folly”.
(13) Giles Swayne London • "Intelligent" Boris Johnson commits the age-old folly of mistaking good fortune, selfishness, narcissism and aggression for intelligence, but unwittingly demonstrates the wrongness of his position.
(14) That police can legally do this, the QCCL argues, illustrates the folly and unfairness of laws intended to safeguard an event at which police, on their own projections, will outnumber protesters three to one.
(15) This sad state of affairs shows the folly of handing over taxpayers’ money to unaccountable groups to run schools.
(16) There are obvious implications for public services, and the clear link between poor public services and demand for healthcare is ignored at our folly.
(17) In a household, it would be economic folly to lay out grand plans without having the money to pay for them.
(18) The cliff-side Mussenden Temple is a folly that was modelled on the Temple of Vesta in Rome and built for the Earl Bishop of Derry (one of Lord Bristol’s eccentric forbears), in 1785.
(19) Follies plays exquisitely on the unreliability of memory and the ephemerality of theatre; it is a stark warning against the distorting dangers of nostalgia.
(20) In giving $850bn to the IMF the G20 are only making the poor suffer more, and forcing them to pay for the folly and greed of bankers and speculators.
Unreason
Definition:
(n.) Want of reason; unreasonableness; absurdity.
(v. t.) To undo, disprove, or refute by reasoning.
Example Sentences:
(1) In the three cases examined, the panel said that none "represents subversion of the peer review process nor unreasonable attempts to influence the editorial policy of journals".
(2) Ensure data protection rules don’t place unreasonable costs on business.
(3) Unreasonable expectations and expansion of the health sector have spawned counterproductive effects which are to some extent detrimental to public health.
(4) She said aggression or abuse were never acceptable, but NHS contracts obliged GPs to give a warning before removing patients, in most cases, with the exception of cases where this would pose a risk or it was unreasonable to do so.
(5) It is wiser, in the light of results reporting individual differences in the existence and extent of the paradox, and its sensitivity to stimulus conditions, to side with Blake and Fox (1973) when they observed that it is not unreasonable to suppose that various stimulus conditions might yield varying amounts of summation or even inhibition.
(6) It was concluded that treatment with enalapril was well tolerated and it is, therefore, unreasonable to restrict the initiation of treatment with enalapril to inpatients.
(7) This paper, presented as part of a panel on the subject, has propounded the view that the defense is unconscionable, using that aspect of the definition dealing with unreasonableness.
(8) Thus, EDS seems to be a "safe" diagnosis, and it is not unreasonable to assume that it could represent a disease entity.
(9) The surveyor is proud to announce, "I can assure my readers that Walden has a reasonably tight bottom at a not unreasonable, though at an unusual, depth."
(10) Speaking of the Chilcot inquiry this week, David Cameron said: "It would be unreasonable to postpone it beyond the next election," with his eyes clearly on the prize rather than a genuine interest in justice.
(11) "If they quoted unreasonable rates, they might lose the opportunity to work again."
(12) Most frequent efforts were to pass state statutes making it unreasonably difficult to obtain an abortion.
(13) Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said: “This is an excellent ruling – and supports our view that people coming to the UK who don’t have sufficient resources to support themselves and would become an unreasonable burden should not be able to access national welfare systems.
(14) The suit says the helmets were unreasonably dangerous and unsafe.
(15) The demands become especially unreasonable at holiday time, when politicians can be portrayed as indifferent to the public suffering or inconvenience.
(16) Also, as we gain further understanding of the molecular and cellular consequences of brain injury, it is not unreasonable to expect improved pharmacologic therapy of the various sequelae of brain injury.
(17) Neither have unreasonably low determinations of viability.
(18) Kenton's alliance with Zaleshoff isn't always an easy one - the journalist is unimpressed by the spy's attempt to fob him off with the official Stalinist line on Trotskyite subversion, for example, and Zaleshoff is, not unreasonably, suspicious of Kenton's motives for helping him - but it's kept afloat by the undercurrent of sexual attraction between Kenton and Zaleshoff's sister.
(19) Heydon made the not unreasonable point that it was strange for someone to seek an early appearance at the royal commission if they didn’t intend to cooperate fully and answer questions.
(20) But it sees the recovery gathering pace and growth almost doubling in 2011 – forecasts that King today described as not "unreasonable".