foul

English Online Dictionary. What means foul‎? What does foul mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: foul, IPA^(key): /faʊl/
• Rhymes: -aʊl
• Homophone: fowl
• Rhymes: -aʊəl

Etymology 1

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”), 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.

Adjective

foul (comparative fouler, superlative foulest)

1. Covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.
2. (of words or a way of speaking) Obscene, vulgar or abusive.

3. Detestable, unpleasant, loathsome.
4. Disgusting, repulsive; causing disgust.

5. (obsolete) Ugly; homely; poor.
6. Unpleasant, stormy or rainy. (of the weather)
7. Dishonest or not conforming to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.

8. (nautical) Entangled and therefore restricting free movement, not clear.

9. (technical) (with "of") Positioned on, in, or near enough to (a specified area) so as to obstruct it.
   • 2015, Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Railway Investigation Report R13T0192^[1]:

     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.

10. (baseball) Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.

Synonyms

• (hateful, detestable): shameful; odious; wretched; frightful.

Derived terms

Collocations

Translations

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle English foulen, fulen, from Old English fūlian (“to become foul; rot; decay”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūlēn, from Proto-Germanic *fūlāną (“to rot; decay”).

Verb

foul (third-person singular simple present fouls, present participle fouling, simple past and past participle fouled)

1. (transitive) To make dirty.

   Synonyms: befoul, dirty, besmirch

2. (transitive) To besmirch.

3. (transitive) To clog or obstruct.
4. (transitive, nautical) To entangle.
5. (transitive, basketball) To make contact with an opposing player in order to gain advantage.

6. (intransitive, basketball) To commit a foul.

7. (transitive, baseball) To hit outside of the baselines.

8. (intransitive, baseball) To hit a ball outside of the baselines.

9. (intransitive) To become clogged.

10. (intransitive) To become entangled.

11. To come into contact or collide with.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

foul (plural fouls)

1. (sports) 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.
2. (bowling) A (usually accidental) contact between a bowler and the lane before the bowler has released the ball.
3. (baseball) A foul ball, a ball which has been hit outside of the base lines.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Cantonese: foul
• → Polish: faul
• → Russian: фол (fol)
• → Turkish: faul

Translations

See also

• foul fish

Further reading

• “foul”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “foul”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “foul”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• fluo-

Chinese

Alternative forms

• 否

Etymology

Borrowed from English foul.

Pronunciation

Verb

foul

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, usually sports) to disqualify due to a foul (breach of rules of the game) or a violation
2. (Hong Kong Cantonese, by extension) to eliminate

   被foul出局 [Hong Kong Cantonese]  ―  bei⁶ fau¹ ceot¹ guk⁶ [Jyutping]  ―  to be eliminated (in a competition, etc.)

3. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to reject (an idea or a proposal)

Synonyms

• (to disqualify): DQ
• (to reject): ban

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

German

Pronunciation

Verb

foul

1. singular imperative of foulen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of foulen

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French fol.

Noun

foul

1. Alternative form of fole (“fool”)

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old English fugol.

Noun

foul

1. Alternative form of fowel