2. A formal and serious promise to tell the truth or to do something: When he joined the military service, he took an oath to defend his nation.
3. An irreverent or blasphemous use of the name of God or something held sacred: Trisha uttered an oath that was offensive and which was used to express anger and frustration.
The police officer, who must have been an oaf, insisted that Mildred take an oath not to disturb the peace during the parade.
Flubber Hall of Fame, Oaf of office
On Tuesday, January 20, 2009, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Flubber Hall of Fame when he administered the presidential oath of office apparently without notes.
Instead of having Barack Obama "solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States," Roberts had him "solemnly swear that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully."
When Obama paused after "execute", the chief justice prompted him to continue with "faithfully the office of president of the United States."
Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual.
Nevertheless, they refuse to go away, perpetuated by the Gotcha!Gang and meekly obeyed by insecure writers.
Among these fetishes is the prohibition against "split verbs", in which an adverb comes between an infinitive marker like "to", or an auxiliary like "will", and the main verb of the sentence; for example, when Captain Kirk of the starship "Enterprise" said, "to boldly go where no man has gone before"; it should have been "to go boldly where no man has gone before".
When Chief Justice John Roberts changed the oath of office from "solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States" to "solemnly swear that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully", he is accused of making the "oath of office" an "oaf of office".
2. A person who is perceived to be a simpleton, uneducated, or unlearned: Claudia was sure that the oaf in her class wouldn't know the meanings of any words even if he looked them up in several dictionaries.
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