The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word SAPS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
S
A
P
S
More clues leading to the result SAPS
- They’re simple drains
- Drains baths from the bottom
- Numberless photos of foolish people
- Green cheese? A turn off for fools
- Drains baths needing a going-over
- Drains setting health resorts back
- Drains baths upside down
- Missing nothing, adds cleaning material to drains
- Juices healthy places served up
- Drains made up as an afterthought
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "foolish people" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case foolish people = saps.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does SAPS mean?
SAPS noun- The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition.
- The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree.
- Any juice.
- Vitality.
- A naive person; a simpleton
- To drain, suck or absorb from (tree, etc.).
- To exhaust the vitality of.
- A short wooden club; a leather-covered hand weapon; a blackjack.
- To strike with a sap (with a blackjack).
- A narrow ditch or trench made from the foremost parallel toward the glacis or covert way of a besieged place by digging under cover of gabions, etc.
- To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of.
- To pierce with saps.
- To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken.
- To gradually weaken.
- To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps.