befoul
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From be- + foul.
Base: foul
Affixes: be-
Inflected forms:
form: befouls
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: befouling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: befouled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: befouled
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: To make foul; to soil; to contaminate, pollute.
pos: verb
tags: literally
examples: These heights are a desirable retreat, for less picturesque reasons—as an escape from a compound of vile smells perpetually arising from a great harbour full of stagnant water, and befouled by the refuse of innumerable ships with all sorts of cargoes: which, in hot weather, is dreadful in the last degree.
1897, Robert Gwynneddon Davies (translator), The Sleeping Bard by Ellis Wynne, London: Simplkon, Marshall & Co., Part I,
At last, what with a round of blasphemy, and the whole crowd with clay pistols belching smoke and fire and slander of their neighbours, and the floor already befouled with dregs and spittle, I feared lest viler deeds should happen, and craved to depart.
Only the four walls of his home still stood, blackened and smoking with the sluggish, stinking smoke that befouled the sea-wind.
1997, Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid, “Echo and Narcissus” in Paul Keegan (ed.), Ted Hughes: Collected Poems, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, p. 919,
There was a pool of perfect water.
[…] No cattle
Had slobbered their muzzles in it
And befouled it.
gloss: To make foul; to soil; to contaminate, pollute.
pos: verb
tags: literally
specifically
examples: For its an ill Bird will befoule her own Nest […]
“[…] But pray what smell is that? Sure your lapdog has befoul’d himself;—let me catch hold of the nasty cur, I’ll teach him better manners.”
gloss: To stain or mar (e.g., with infamy or disgrace).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
examples: For three days Pete bore himself according to his wont, thinking to silence the evil tongues of the little world about him, and keep sweet and alive the dear name which they were waiting to befoul and destroy.
“[…] you combine a vulgar atheism and an iconoclastic desire to befoul the sacred ideas of the average man or woman, collectively scorned as the bourgeoisie——”
There she sits before you, gentlemen, betrayed by her husband, befouled by every idle tongue that wags […]
gloss: To entangle or run against so as to impede motion.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
Related words: afoul
Derived words: befouler
befoulment
unbefouled
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: замърсявам
roman: zamǎrsjavam
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 弄脏
roman: nòngzāng
lang: Dutch
word: verzieken
lang: Dutch
word: bevuilen
lang: Dutch
word: bezoedelen
lang: German
word: verderben
lang: Korean
word: 더럽히다
roman: deoreophida
lang: Latin
word: inquinō
lang: Polish
word: brudzić
lang: Polish
word: ubrudzić
lang: Polish
word: kalać
lang: Polish
word: skalać
lang: Portuguese
word: conspurcar
lang: Russian
word: загрязнять
roman: zagrjaznjatʹ
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: كیرلمك
roman: kirlemek
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: پیسلمك
roman: pislemek
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: مردارلامق
roman: murdarlamak
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: بوقلامق
roman: boklamak