gullible
/ˈɡʌləb(ə)l
/adjective
Easily persuaded to believe something; credulous: an attempt to persuade a gullible public to spend their money...
- After all, there are so many gullible people who believe whatever they read!
- Apparently, to this day, a gullible section of society believes in the existence of these British rockers.
- But there is no evidence which shows that juries are gullible fools, easily led by a passing headline.
Synonyms
credulous, over-trusting, over-trustful, trustful, easily deceived/led, easily taken in, exploitable, dupable, deceivable, impressionable, unsuspecting, unsuspicious, unwary, unguarded, unsceptical, ingenuous, naive, innocent, simple, inexperienced, unworldly, green, as green as grass, childlike, ignorant;
foolish, silly
informal wet behind the ears, born yesterday
Derivatives
gullibility
/ noun ...- It is a deeply dishonest book that takes advantage of the ignorance, gullibility, and derangement of its target audience.
- Our ignorance and gullibility led us to this university.
- Too much fun still derives from characters' gullibility or stupidity, but the young author is trying to lift himself from farce into comedy.
gullibly
- I bit on that one and gullibly asked who was the first greatest.
- This has always been moonshine, put forward by the drinks industry and gullibly accepted by successive governments.
- You gullibly fell for the myth of liberation for all by a machine that will end up paralysing and poisoning all of us whether we use it or not.
gullibleness
Origin
Early 19th century: from gull2 + -ible.
A gullible person was originally someone who could be ‘gulled’, or deceived. Gull in this sense is now rare, but was a very common word from the 16th to the 19th centuries, and was used by Shakespeare. It may have come from gull, an old dialect term for an unfledged bird, which had nothing to do with gull as in seagull: this was a medieval word that probably came from a Celtic language such as Welsh or Cornish.