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Fine Dictionary

foul

faʊl
WordNet
Wooden knife handle with copper ring with fouling. In the wood and the growth are the imprints of fairly large coins with which the knife handle apparently has been lying on the wreck site, waiting to be found. Knife handle.
Wooden knife handle with copper ring with fouling. In the wood and the growth are the imprints of fairly large coins with which the knife handle apparently has been lying on the wreck site, waiting to be found. Knife handle.
  1. (adj) foul
    especially of a ship's lines etc "with its sails afoul","a foul anchor"
  2. (adj) foul
    disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter "as filthy as a pigsty","a foul pond","a nasty pigsty of a room"
  3. (adj) foul
    characterized by obscenity "had a filthy mouth","foul language","smutty jokes"
  4. (adj) foul
    (of a baseball) not hit between the foul lines
  5. (adj) foul
    violating accepted standards or rules "a dirty fighter","used foul means to gain power","a nasty unsporting serve","fined for unsportsmanlike behavior"
  6. (adj) foul
    offensively malodorous "a foul odor","the kitchen smelled really funky"
  7. (adj) foul
    (of a manuscript) defaced with changes "foul (or dirty) copy"
  8. (adj) foul
    highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust "a disgusting smell","distasteful language","a loathsome disease","the idea of eating meat is repellent to me","revolting food","a wicked stench"
  9. (v) foul
    become soiled and dirty
  10. (v) foul
    make unclean "foul the water"
  11. (v) foul
    spot, stain, or pollute "The townspeople defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it"
  12. (v) foul
    make impure "The industrial wastes polluted the lake"
  13. (v) foul
    commit a foul; break the rules
  14. (v) foul
    hit a foul ball
  15. (v) foul
    become or cause to become obstructed "The leaves clog our drains in the Fall","The water pipe is backed up"
  16. (n) foul
    an act that violates the rules of a sport
Illustrations
Venomous snake with two horn-like protrusions above the eyes that give it its name.
Bitis cornuta (Fouled-horned viper)
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Interesting fact
The blow of a whale has a strong, foul odor. It apparently smells like a combination of spoiled fish and old oil. Because whales have such terrible breath, sailors believed at one time that a whiff of it could cause brain disorders.
  1. Foul
    foul A bird.
  2. Foul
    An entanglement; a collision, as in a boat race.
  3. Foul
    Hateful; detestable; shameful; odious; wretched. "The foul with Sycorax.", "Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?"
  4. Foul
    Having freedom of motion interfered with by collision or entanglement; entangled; -- opposed to clear; as, a rope or cable may get foul while paying it out.
  5. Foul
    In various games or sports, an act done contrary to the rules; a foul stroke, hit, play, or the like.
  6. Foul
    Loathsome; disgusting; as, a foul disease.
  7. Foul
    Not conformed to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.; unfair; dishonest; dishonorable; cheating; as, foul play.
  8. Foul
    Not favorable; unpropitious; not fair or advantageous; as, a foul wind; a foul road; cloudy or rainy; stormy; not fair; -- said of the weather, sky, etc. "So foul a sky clears not without a storm."
  9. Foul
    To become clogged with burnt powder in the process of firing, as a gun.
  10. Foul
    To cover (a ship's bottom) with anything that impered its sailing; as, a bottom fouled with barnacles.
  11. Foul
    To entangle, so as to impede motion; as, to foul a rope or cable in paying it out; to come into collision with; as, one boat fouled the other in a race.
  12. Foul
    (Mil) To incrust (the bore of a gun) with burnt powder in the process of firing.
  13. Foul
    To make filthy; to defile; to daub; to dirty; to soil; as, to foul the face or hands with mire.
  14. Foul
    Ugly; homely; poor. "Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares."
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  1. foul
    Grossly offensive to the senses; of a filthy or noxious character or quality; noisome; disgusting: as, foul matter or exudations; a foul smell; foul breath.
  2. foul
    Of a harmful or mischievous character; causing trouble or annoyance; obnoxious; obstructive; clogging: as, foul weeds; foul weather; a foul wind.
  3. foul
    Affected by noisome or defiling matter; in a filthy state or condition; unclean; dirty; turbid; defiled: as, foul clothing; foul den; a foul stream.
  4. foul
    Affected by harmful matter or things; obstructed by anything fixed or attached; clogged; choked: as, a foul garden (one full of weeds); a foul chimney (one choked with soot); the ship's bottom is foul (clogged with seaweeds or barnacles); the channel has a foul bottom (one cumbered by rocks, wrecks, or the like).
  5. foul
    Clogged or impeded as by collision or entanglement; in a state of obstructing contact or involvement: with of before the obstructive object: as, the ship is foul of a rock or of another ship; a rope or an anchor is foul from being jammed, entangled, or clogged in any way.
  6. foul
    Contrary to or violating rule or established usage; done, acting, or acted upon improperly; irregular; disorderly; unfair: as, a foul blow or stroke: a foul player or fighter; a foul attack. See foul play, below.
  7. foul
    Grossly offensive or loathsome in a moral sense; manifesting, or prompted or actuated by, base or vicious feeling; vile; odious; shameful; revolting: as, foul thoughts or actions; foul language; a foul slander, murder, conspiracy, etc.; a foul slanderer or conspirator.
  8. foul
    Extremely bad as to effect or result; unfavorable; unlucky; pernicious; distressing: us, a foul accident; a foul prospect or omen.
  9. foul
    Coarse; common; of little value.
  10. foul
    Ill-favored; ugly; homely.
  11. foul
    To attack; make an assault upon. See afoul.
  12. (n) foul
    The act of fouling, colliding, or otherwise impeding due motion or progress; specifically, in a contest of any kind, a violation of the governing rules.
  13. (n) foul
    In base-ball, a hit which makes the ball land outside the lines from home to first or to third base continued indefinitely; a foul ball or a foul hit. See base-ball.
  14. (n) foul
    An ulcer in a cow's foot; a disease that produces ulcers.
  15. foul
    In a foul manner.
  16. foul
    To make foul, in any sense; befoul. To defile; duty; soil.
  17. foul
    Nautical, to entangle.
  18. foul
    To become foul or dirty: as, a gun. fouls from long use.
  19. foul
    Nautical, to come into collision, as two boats; become entangled or clogged: as, the rope fouled; the block fouled.
  20. foul
    In base-ball, to strike a foul ball
  21. (n) foul
    An obsolete spelling of fowl.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
  1. (adj) Foul
    fowl filthy: loathsome: obscene: impure: stormy: unfair: running against: distressing, pernicious: choked up, entangled:
  2. (v.t) Foul
    to make foul: to soil: to effect a collision
  3. (v.i) Foul
    to come into collision:—pr.p. foul′ing; pa.p. fouled
  4. (n) Foul
    act of fouling: any breach of the rules in games or contests
  5. (adj) Foul
    fowl (Shak.) homely, ugly
Quotations
Every man has a rainy corner of his life whence comes foul weather which follows him.
Jean Paul Richter
William Shakespeare
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
William Shakespeare
Theodore Roosevelt
Don't foul, don't flinch. Hit the line hard.
Theodore Roosevelt
Samuel Butler
Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.
Samuel Butler
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
William Shakespeare
We wound our modesty and make foul the clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them.
William Shakespeare
Idioms

Foul play - If the police suspect foul play, they think a crime was committed.

No harm, no foul - There's no problem when no harm or damage is done, such as the time my sister-in-law stole the name we'd chosen for a boy and we both ended up having girls.

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary OE. foul, ful, AS. fūl,; akin to D. vuil, G. faul, rotten, OHG. fūl, Icel. fūl, foul, fetid; Dan. fuul, Sw. ful, foul, Goth. fūls, fetid, Lith. puti, to be putrid, L. putere, to stink, be putrid, pus, pus, Gr. py`on pus, to cause to rot, Skr. pūy, to stink. √82. Cf. Defile to foul, File to foul, Filth Pus Putrid

Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary A.S. fúl; Ger. faul, Goth. fûls.

Usage in the news

Hulu To Stream UK's Foul-Mouthed Comedy 'The Thick of It' Uncensored. hollywoodreporter.com

Foul-mouthed politicians: Some candidates on the East Coast recently engaged in questionabl language practices to get their points across. enidnews.com

In Wiggins' Foul-Mouthed Rant at Tour de France, Doubt, Hope, and Trust Take Spotlight. bicycling.com

The 'Ted' Test: Can a Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bear Save Big-Budget Comedies. theatlantic.com

'Ted': How Seth MacFarlane animated his foul-mouthed bear. latimes.com

In Teen Books, Foul-Mouthed Characters Are Rich, Cool, and Hot. theatlantic.com

Superheroes, action flicks and one foul-mouthed teddy bear. nj.com

Fracking is too important to foul up. ashingtonpost.com

The Fowl Foul-Up On Thanksgiving Day. kbw.com

Frustrated with a fouled paddle-wheel speed transducer. cruisingworld.com

Harm or Not, You Fouled up on Privacy. businessweek.com

What to do about oil- fouled plugs. generalaviationnews.com

My partner, Lou, and I just had our Piper PA 28 235 overhauled and are having problems with the lower plugs getting oil fouled . generalaviationnews.com

It took only 13 seconds for DeMarcus Cousins to be called for his first foul. newsobserver.com

Lakers are all fouled up in opener. chicagotribune.com

Usage in scientific papers

To do this, however, it will be necessary to devise some scheme for treating these very small scales that does not fall foul of the Courant time constraint discussed previously.
The First Stars

One particular setting is a referee deciding whether a player has committed a foul using his or her noisy observation as well as prior experience.
Quantization of Prior Probabilities for Hypothesis Testing

Players commit fouls at different rates; some players are dirtier or more aggressive than others.
Quantization of Prior Probabilities for Hypothesis Testing

It is this rate which is the prior probability for the ‘foul committed’ state.
Quantization of Prior Probabilities for Hypothesis Testing

Let us consider the particular setting for human decision making mentioned in Section I: a referee determining whether a player has committed a foul or not using both his or her noisy observation and prior experience.
Quantization of Prior Probabilities for Hypothesis Testing

Usage in literature

You suspect foul play? "The Seven Secrets" by William Le Queux

But it was only a foul, and, though Russell tried desperately to get it, he could not. "Baseball Joe in the Big League" by Lester Chadwick

A FOUL DEED DONE IN A FOG. "The Ocean Waifs" by Mayne Reid

The ways were foul and narrow; the shops and houses wretched; the people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. "A Budget of Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens and Others" by Various

Oh, undoubtedly a case of foul play, Mr. Narkom. "Cleek, the Master Detective" by Thomas W. Hanshew

And now, a rocking cinder, fouls the skies. "Hypolympia" by Edmund Gosse

The child of a foul traitor. "The Cryptogram" by James De Mille

But none of my forefathers had anything to do with the foul deed you tell of. "The Saracen: Land of the Infidel" by Robert Shea

The brook was fouled near the highroad from the passing of heavy carts and wagons, so Robin pushed down it into the thicker wood. "Robin Hood" by Paul Creswick

The right act or true thought sets its stamp of beauty in the features; the wrong act or foul thought sets its seal of distortion. "A Man's Value to Society" by Newell Dwight Hillis

Usage in poetry
The jests that lit our hours by night
And made them gay,
Soiled a sweet and ignorant soul
And fouled its play.
Though ways be foul, and days are dim,
He makes no lamentation;
The primal "fount" of woe to him
Is--want of occupation:
"With him I sweetly liv'd in love
A twelvemonth and a day;
When, lo! a foul and treacherous priest
Y-wrought our loves' decay.
"The Kyng of Spayne is a foule paynim,
And leevith on Mahound;
And pitye it were that fayre ladye
Shold marrye a heathen hound."
Thanks for all things that are,
For the fair, the foul, the fell;
Thanks for the Morning—star,
And the nethermost murk of Hell.
"Now naye, nowe naye, good Sir Gawaine,
My sister's sonne yee bee;
This lothlye ladye's all too grimme,
And all too foule for yee.