foul
Part of speech: adj
verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: ball-games
baseball
basketball
bowling
engineering
games
hobbies
lifestyle
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
soccer
sports
technical
transport
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English ffoul, foul, foull, fowel, fowle, fuyle, voul, vul, 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- (“foul, rotten”).
Cognates
Cognate with Central Franconian fuul (“putrid, rotten; lazy, workshy”), Cimbrian baul, vaul (“putrid, rotten”), Dutch vuil (“dirty, foul; lewd, obscene; dishonorable; illegal”), German faul (“foul, putrid, rotten; lazy”), Yiddish פֿױל (foyl, “putrid; lazy”), Danish ful (“nasty, ugly”), Icelandic fúll (“foul, rotten, sullen”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk ful (“clever, sly”), and Swedish ful (“ugly; bad, dirty”), Gothic 𐍆𐌿𐌻𐍃 (fuls, “fetid, foul, putrid”), and through Indo-European, with Latin puter (“decaying, rotten; friable, crumbling”), Greek πύο (pýo), πύον (pýon, “pus”), Albanian fëlliq (“to make dirty, sully”), Latvian pūt (“to rot”), Lithuanian pūti (“to rot”), Armenian փուտ (pʻut, “rottenness”), Persian پوده (pude, “rubbed, worn; foul, rotten; empty, hollow”), Sanskrit पूयति (pūyati, “to become foul; to stink”). 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.
Inflected forms:
form: fouler
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: foulest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: foule
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: fouls
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: fouling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: fouled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: fouled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: foule
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: fouls
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: foule
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.
pos: adj
examples: This cloth is too foul to use as a duster.
His foul hands got dirt all over the kitchen.
The air was so foul nobody could breathe.
A ship's bottom is foul when overgrown with barnacles
A well is foul with polluted water.
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.
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.
gloss: Obscene, vulgar or abusive.
pos: adj
examples: The rascal spewed forth a series of foul words.
His foul language causes many people to believe he is uneducated.
gloss: Detestable, unpleasant, loathsome.
pos: adj
examples: He has a foul set of friends.
[…]Hast thou forgot / The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy / Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her?
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
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.
gloss: Disgusting, repulsive; causing disgust.
pos: adj
examples: This foul food is making me retch.
There was a foul smell coming from the toilet.
gloss: Ugly; homely; poor.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares.
gloss: Unpleasant, stormy or rainy. (of the weather)
pos: adj
examples: Some foul weather is brewing.
So foul a sky clears not without a storm.
gloss: Dishonest or not conforming to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.
pos: adj
examples: Foul play is not suspected.
gloss: Entangled and therefore restricting free movement, not clear.
pos: adj
examples: We've got a foul anchor.
A rope could get foul while it is being paid out.
gloss: (with "of") Positioned on, in, or near enough to (a specified area) so as to obstruct it.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
Ten of the freight train's wagons had derailed, two of them foul of the Down Fast. At 2308, the TPO struck one of them, causing the locomotive (86239) to jack-knife and turn so that it was almost touching the end wall of a house in The Russetts, a new-build row that sat close to the line.
gloss: Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.
pos: adj
examples: Jones hit foul ball after foul ball.
gloss: To make dirty.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to foul the face or hands with mire
She's fouled her diaper.
gloss: To besmirch.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He's fouled his reputation.
gloss: To obstruct, block, or otherwise interfere with (something), for example by clogging (a drain, gun barrel, chimney, etc) or by being in the way of (a gunshot, etc).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: The hair has fouled the drain.
The recent opening of the bridge at the south end of Lincoln Station has enabled trains to take water there without fouling the level crossings at both ends of the platforms.
As a result of the accident at Southend Airport when a Hermes aircraft overshot the runway and fouled the down Shenfield to Southend Victoria line between Rochford and Prittlewell, the Eastern Region is considering warning arrangements, which have already been provided on some lines running past aerodromes.
Unbelievable. Nearly all shots were fouled by twigs or branches.
Porterfields 5" guns were of little use as their shots were fouled' by the other task group warships down range.
“You were lucky the shot was fouled,” said a dispassionate voice.
gloss: To entangle.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The kelp has fouled the prop.
The Indian's heart was sore for his boat; it looked as if nothing could save her. She was drifting more slowly now, her propeller fouled in kelp.
gloss: To make make a play, such as a strong contact with an opposing player in order to gain advantage, that is deemed by the referee to have contravened the rules.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Smith fouled him hard.
The Gunners dominated for long periods but, against the run of play, Denilson fouled Max Gradel and Robert Snodgrass put Leeds ahead from the spot.
gloss: To commit a foul.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Smith fouled within the first minute of the quarter.
State begins fouling and UCLA misses a couple of front-end free throws on one-and-ones.
gloss: To hit outside of the baselines.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Jones fouled the ball off the facing of the upper deck.
gloss: To hit a ball outside of the baselines.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Jones fouled for strike one.
gloss: To become clogged.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The drain fouled.
gloss: To become entangled.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The prop fouled on the kelp.
gloss: To come into contact or collide with.
pos: verb
examples: The full capacity, however, requires a hopper of a size that takes the wagon body up to 11ft 11½in above rail level, which would foul many existing colliery screens.
gloss: A breach of the rules of a game, especially one involving inappropriate contact with an opposing player in order to gain an advantage; for example, tripping someone up in soccer, or contact of any kind in basketball.
pos: noun
examples: A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.
Gosling's plight worsened when he was soon shown a red card for a foul on Martin.
Even though we were swept, we did outstat the Fast Breakers in one category: they had six technical fouls for the series (three for Bibby, two for Matthews, and one for Shouse), and we totaled nine (three each for Mannion and me, one each for Jose Slaughter, Lewis, and Lamp).
gloss: A (usually accidental) contact between a bowler and the lane before the bowler has released the ball.
pos: noun
gloss: A foul ball, a ball which has been hit outside of the base lines.
pos: noun
examples: Jones hit a foul up over the screen.
Related words: foul fish
Derived words: 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
biofoul
foulable
foul one's own nest
foul out
foul up
foul-up
overfoul
unfouled
offensive foul
party foul
personal foul
professional foul
technical foul
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: неблагоприятен
roman: neblagoprijaten
lang: Finnish
word: kurja
lang: German
word: schlecht
lang: German
word: ungünstig
lang: Russian
word: га́дкий
roman: gádkij
lang: Russian
word: скве́рный
roman: skvérnyj
lang: Russian
word: паску́дный
roman: paskúdnyj