1. behaving or looking silly or foolish in a way that is funny and often endearing
1.adjectiveB1
Definition
behaving or looking silly or foolish in a way that is funny and often endearing — like making a funny face on purpose to make friends laugh, or wearing a costume that looks ridiculous in a charming way.
Example
Salma's goofy hat had a tiny propeller on top and jingle bells around the brim.
collocation: goofy hat
The children laughed at the clown's goofy walk and oversized shoes.
collocation: goofy walk
Ryo felt a bit goofy trying to ride a unicycle for the first time.
Folake sent her sister a goofy selfie with her tongue sticking out.
collocation: goofy selfie
That goofy movie about a dancing penguin made everyone in the theater smile.
Silly is the broadest and most neutral of these words — it can mean anything from mildly playful (a silly game) to slightly foolish (a silly mistake). Foolish carries stronger criticism, pointing to poor judgment rather than lightheartedness. Ridiculous is more extreme and can be either humorous or contemptuous depending on tone: a ridiculous outfit might be hilarious or just absurdly bad. Zany describes deliberately wild, eccentric humour — the kind of over-the-top antics you see in slapstick comedy. Goofy falls between silly and zany: it signals playful foolishness that is endearing rather than embarrassing. For example, a goofy dance is one that looks awkward but makes people smile, while a silly dance might just be childish, a foolish dance would be unwise, and a zany dance would be frantic and exaggerated.
Goofy comes from American English slang. The noun goof (a foolish or stupid person) first appeared in the early 1910s, possibly from the British dialect verb goff (to blunder) or from the French word goffe (awkward, stupid). The adjective goofy was formed by adding -y, meaning 'like a goof'. The Disney cartoon character Goofy, introduced in 1932, helped make the word widely popular, shifting its tone from purely insulting to more affectionately silly.