Befooled

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To deceive someone by making them believe something false; to trick or mislead a person into a false understanding; to render a person foolish or gullible through cunning or deceitful behavior
2. To cause a person to be made a fool by means of deception; to lead someone into a misconception or error in judgment; to manipulate someone’s beliefs in a way that undermines their intelligence
3. To mislead an individual into believing something that isn’t true; to play tricks on someone to make them seem silly; to exploit someone's trust or naivety for one's advantage

Etymology: "Befooled" is the past tense and past participle of "befool", a verb that English built by attaching the prefix "be-" to "fool". The prefix does real work here: in Middle English it could turn a noun or adjective into a verb meaning to treat something as, or to act upon it in a particular way, so "befool" came to mean to make someone a fool, or to fool them thoroughly. The verb appeared in Middle English as "bifolen", a form that shows the same combination of parts before the spelling settled. The root "fool" has a more surprising past than the verb does. It came into English from Old French "fol", meaning foolish or mad, which in turn traces back to Latin "follis", a word for a bellows or windbag. The sense of an empty, puffed-up head is what links the bellows to the dunce, a connection that is often mentioned in discussions of the word but is not a settled proof of the chain.

Synonyms: deceived, tricked, duped, misled, beguiled

Antonyms: enlightened, informed, aware