foul
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: foul
ipa: /faʊl/
rhymes: -aʊl
homophone: fowl
rhymes: -aʊəl
Forms: form: fouler
form: foulest
form: foule
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English foul, from Old English fūl (“foul, dirty, unclean, impure, vile, corrupt, rotten, stinking, guilty”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūl, from Proto-Germanic *fūlaz (“foul, rotten”), from Proto-Indo-European *puH- (“to rot”).
Cognate with Dutch vuil (“foul, dirty, filthy, obscene, lewd”), German faul (“foul, rotten, putrid, lazy”), German Low German fuul (“foul, rotten, putrid”), Faroese fúlur (“foul”), Icelandic fúll (“foul, rotten, sullen”), Danish ful (“nasty, ugly”), Norwegian Bokmål ful (“clever, sly”), and Swedish ful (“ugly, dirty, bad”), and through Indo-European, with Albanian fëlliq (“to make dirty”), Latin puter (“rotten”). More at putrid.
Ancient Greek φαῦλος (phaûlos, “bad”) is a false cognate inasmuch as it is not from the same etymon, instead being cognate to few.
Senses: examples: text: This cloth is too foul to use as a duster.
text: His foul hands got dirt all over the kitchen.
text: The air was so foul nobody could breathe.
text: A ship's bottom is foul when overgrown with barnacles
text: A well is foul with polluted water.
text: It was, however, most interesting work, and the moulders themselves were a decent crowd, never tired of making jokes about themselves such as the hoary one that moulders did not live long, which however ran counter to the other one that no germs could live in a foundry—the atmosphere was too foul.
ref: 1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 342:
text: Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.
ref: 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
glosses: Covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.
examples: text: The rascal spewed forth a series of foul words.
text: His foul language causes many people to believe he is uneducated.
glosses: Obscene, vulgar or abusive.
raw_tags: of words or a way of speaking
examples: text: He has a foul set of friends.
text: […]Hast thou forgot / The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy / Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her?
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
text: Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Cultural norms and social rules regulate whether someone can be among others or will be isolated, whether the sick will be considered foul or acceptable, and whether they are to be pitied or censured.
ref: 1982 March 18, Eric J. Cassel[l], “The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine”, in The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 306, number 11, →DOI, page 642:
glosses: Detestable, unpleasant, loathsome.
examples: text: This foul food is making me retch.
text: There was a foul smell coming from the toilet.
synonyms: rank
frightful
glosses: Disgusting, repulsive; causing disgust.
examples: text: Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares.
ref: c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
glosses: Ugly; homely; poor.
examples: text: Some foul weather is brewing.
text: So foul a sky clears not without a storm.
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
glosses: Unpleasant, stormy or rainy. (of the weather)
examples: text: Foul play is not suspected.
glosses: Dishonest or not conforming to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.
examples: text: We've got a foul anchor.
text: A rope could get foul while it is being paid out.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Entangled and therefore restricting free movement, not clear.
examples: text: The bus had stopped just foul of the north track at the Erindale Station Road public railway crossing […] With the bus stationary, but still foul of the north track, the train struck one of its front mirrors.
ref: 2015, Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Railway Investigation Report R13T0192
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
technical
glosses: (with "of") Positioned on, in, or near enough to (a specified area) so as to obstruct it.
examples: text: Jones hit foul ball after foul ball.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.
Synonyms: sense: hateful, detestable
word: shameful
sense: hateful, detestable
word: odious
sense: hateful, detestable
word: wretched
sense: hateful, detestable
word: frightful
Derived terms: afoul
antifoul
befoul
biofouling
by fair means or foul
cry foul
fall foul
foul anchor
foul berth
foul bill of health
foulbrood
foul feeder
foulish
foul language
foul line
foully
foul marten
foulmouth
foul-mouthed
foulmouthed
foulness
foul play
foul pole
foul shot
foul-smelling
foul-spoken
foul-tempered
foul tick
foul tip
foul-tongued
foul trouble
foul wind
in one foul swoop
make foul water
nonfoul
nonfouling
unfoul