foolhardy

comparative foolhardier · comparative more foolhardy · superlative foolhardiest · superlative most foolhardy · alternative fool-hardy

1. Marked by unthinking recklessness with disregard for danger; boldly rash; hotheaded.

   The master's pulse stood still, and he stared helplessly. The buzz of study ceased. The pupils wondered if this fool-hardy boy had lost his mind.

   1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 68

   2 more examples

   In the middle distance several foolhardy souls in wet suits were surfing toward some foamy outbursts on the rocky headland; nearer in, a scattering of paddlers was being continually and, it seemed, happily engulfed by explosive waves.

   2000, Bill Bryson, chapter 1, in In a Sunburned Country, 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, →ISBN, page 14

   It is a reckless, foolhardy leap into the unknown and the prelude, perhaps, to what the existentialist writer Albert Camus described in La chute – a fall from grace, in every conceivable sense.

   2017 March 26, “The Observer view on triggering article 50: As Britain hurtles towards the precipice, truth and democracy are in short supply”, in The Observer, London, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2017

   Synonyms: bold, daring, foolish, irresponsible, rash, reckless

plural foolhardies · alternative fool-hardy

1. A person who is foolhardy.

   Resentful of the saddle-fast stranger, eight foolhardies return for more adventure.

   1977, Rolf R. Mueller, Festival and Fiction in Heinrich Wittenwiler's Ring, page 26

   1 more example

   Some foolhardies in the schoolhouse laughed at him then and Griff stuck their heads into toilets, one by one over the next week.

   2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys