From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmake a fool of somebodymake a fool of somebodyto deliberately do something to make someone else seem stupid I suddenly realised that I was being made a fool of. → fool
Examples from the Corpus
make a fool of somebody• People got tired of interviewing him because they felt they were being made fools of.• We were dreary and would have made fools of ourselves.• Has my host made a fool of me?• Your biggest fear is probably the fear of making a fool of yourself and this is what is making you nervous.• The mature glider pilot would never hesitate to make a fool of himself in the interests of safety.• One thing Congress apparently can do in a bipartisan spirit is to make a fool of itself.• And Jeffries then proceeded to make a fool of Marshak by never again producing a single scholarly work.• Why did you try to make a fool of me in public?• And why should you make a fool of yourself now by trying? 