Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The young offspring of a horse or other equine animal, especially one under a year old.
  • intransitive verb To give birth to a foal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bring forth, as a colt or filly: said of a mare or a she-ass.
  • To bring forth young, as an animal of the horse kind.
  • noun The young of the equine genus of quadrupeds, of either sex; a colt or a filly.
  • noun In coal-mining. See the extract.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoö.) The young of any animal of the Horse family (Equidæ); a colt; a filly.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the first set of teeth of a horse.
  • noun being with young; pregnant; -- said of a mare or she ass.
  • intransitive verb To bring forth young, as an animal of the horse kind.
  • transitive verb To bring forth (a colt); -- said of a mare or a she ass.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A young (male or female) horse, especially just after birth or less than a year old.
  • verb equestrian To give birth; to bear offspring.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a young horse
  • verb give birth to a foal

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English fole, from Old English fola; see pau- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English fola, from Proto-Germanic *fulô, from pre-Germanic *pl̥Hon-, from Proto-Indo-European *pōlH- ‘animal young’ (compare Ancient Greek πώλος (pṓlos), Latin pullus, Albanian pelë ‘mare’, Armenian ul ‘kid, fawn’).

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Examples

  • And the wolf-dog, with ears flattened down and crouching, would slide silkily away, only to circle up to the foal from the other side and give cause to the mare for new alarm.

    Chapter XXVII 2010

  • Remember not to neglect your brood mares, particularly those that have difficulty getting in foal or keeping a pregnancy beyond 45 days.

    SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles - Part 1240 2009

  • Diane Lane's Penny Chenery Tweedy takes charge of her father's troubled farm as a foal is born in 1970 and goes on to win the Triple Crown.

    The Short List: A Guide to This Week's Arts and Entertainment 2010

  • And the wolf-dog, with ears flattened down and crouching, would slide silkily away, only to circle up to the foal from the other side and give cause to the mare for new alarm.

    Chapter XXVII 1910

  • Controlling Eastern tent caterpillars is vital to area horse farms, as UK research has strongly linked the caterpillars with outbreaks of Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS), which can cause late-term foal losses, early-term fetal losses, and weak foals.

    TheHorse.com News 2010

  • Controlling Eastern tent caterpillars is vital to area horse farms, as UK research has strongly linked the caterpillars with outbreaks of Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS), which can cause late-term foal losses, early-term fetal losses, and weak foals.

    TheHorse.com News 2010

  • He mentions, however, the [Greek: pôlion], or bit of livid flesh, which we call the foal's bit, and which he says the mare ejects before the foal. "

    Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc Various 1852

  • And at Mill Ridge, La Ville Rouge is in foal again by Dynaformer.

    Siblings carry Barbaro's legacy, capture imagination of fans 2009

  • The Queen has spent nearly 60 years trying to breed a Derby winner, carefully choosing which of her mares to send to which stallion in the hope that, if the coin spins the right way and the foal is a colt, it might be good enough to emerge from the annual crop of thousands to win at Epsom three years later.

    Favourite Carlton House grants the Queen a date with Derby destiny 2011

  • The Queen has spent nearly 60 years trying to breed a Derby winner, carefully choosing which of her mares to send to which stallion in the hope that, if the coin spins the right way and the foal is a colt, it might be good enough to emerge from the annual crop of thousands to win at Epsom three years later.

    Favourite Carlton House grants the Queen a date with Derby destiny 2011

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