gull
n.n. a person who is easily tricked or cheated. You use this word when someone is too trusting and doesn't notice when they are being taken advantage of.
n. a person who is easily deceived or exploited by others. Often used in British English to describe someone who lacks common sense or is overly trusting.
He is a complete gull and always falls for the same scams.
The con artist targeted the elderly gull who lived alone and had no family to help him.
In the world of high-stakes finance, a gull is often the one who fails to recognize the subtle signs of a market manipulation before it is too late.
Inherited from Middle English gulle, from a Brythonic language (compare Breton gouelan, Welsh gwylan, and Cornish golan), from Proto-Brythonic gwuɨlann, from Proto-Celtic weilannā (“seagull”). Cognate with Old Irish foílenn, Scottish Gaelic faoileag. Compare French goéland, a borrowing from Breton. Eclipsed Middle English lare (borrowed from Latin larus) and Middle English mewe (from Old English mæw).
Perhaps from an obsolete term gull (“to swallow, guzzle”), from Middle English golen (“to make swallowing motions, gape”), from Middle English gole (“throat”).
From Middle English gole (“a whirlpool, narrow inlet of the sea, ditch or stream”), from Middle Low German goel, gȫl, gȫle (“swamp, marshy lowland”), related to Old Dutch gulla (“pool, puddle”), Old French goille (“pool, puddle, pond”), all ultimately from Proto-West Germanic goli, golljā (“puddle”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic guljaz, guljǭ.