Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Offensive to the senses; revolting.
- adj. Having an offensive odor; smelly.
- adj. Rotten or putrid: foul meat.
- adj. Full of dirt or mud; dirty. See Synonyms at dirty.
- adj. Full of impurities; polluted: foul air.
- adj. Morally detestable; wicked: foul deeds.
- adj. Of a vulgar or obscene nature: foul language.
- adj. Very disagreeable or displeasing; horrid: a foul movie.
- adj. Bad or unfavorable: in fair weather or foul.
- adj. Violating accepted standards or rules; dishonorable: used foul means to gain power.
- adj. Sports Contrary to the rules of a game or sport: a foul boxing punch.
- adj. Baseball Outside the foul lines: a foul fly ball.
- adj. Entangled or twisted: a foul anchor.
- adj. Clogged or obstructed; blocked: a foul ventilator shaft.
- adj. Archaic Ugly; unattractive.
- n. Sports An infraction or a violation of the rules of play.
- n. Baseball A foul ball.
- n. An entanglement or a collision.
- n. An instance of clogging or obstructing.
- adv. In a foul manner.
- v. To make dirty or foul; pollute. See Synonyms at contaminate.
- v. To bring into dishonor; besmirch.
- v. To clog or obstruct.
- v. To entangle or catch (a rope, for example).
- v. Nautical To encrust (a ship's hull) with foreign matter, such as barnacles.
- v. Sports To commit a foul against.
- v. Baseball To hit (a ball) outside the foul lines.
- v. To become foul.
- v. Sports To commit a foul.
- v. Baseball To hit a ball outside the foul lines: fouled twice and then struck out; fouled out to the catcher.
- v. To become entangled or twisted: The anchor line fouled on a rock.
- v. To become clogged or obstructed.
- foul out Sports To be put out of a game for exceeding the number of permissible fouls.
- foul up To blunder or cause to blunder because of mistakes or poor judgment.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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. Of a harmful or mischievous character; causing trouble or annoyance; obnoxious; obstructive; clogging: as, foul weeds; foul weather; a foul wind.
- Affected by noisome or defiling matter; in a filthy state or condition; unclean; dirty; turbid; defiled: as, foul clothing; foul den; a foul stream.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Extremely bad as to effect or result; unfavorable; unlucky; pernicious; distressing: us, a foul accident; a foul prospect or omen.
- Coarse; common; of little value.
- Ill-favored; ugly; homely.
- To attack; make an assault upon. See afoul.
- n. 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.
- n. 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.
- n. An ulcer in a cow's foot; a disease that produces ulcers.
- In a foul manner.
- To make foul, in any sense; befoul. To defile; duty; soil.
- Nautical, to entangle.
- To become foul or dirty: as, a gun. fouls from long use.
- Nautical, to come into collision, as two boats; become entangled or clogged: as, the rope fouled; the block fouled.
- In base-ball, to strike a foul ball
- n. An obsolete spelling of fowl.
Wiktionary
- adj. Covered with, or containing, extraneous matter which is injurious, noxious, offensive, or obstructive; filthy; dirty; not clean; polluted; nasty; defiled; as, a foul cloth; foul hands; a foul chimney; foul air; a ship's bottom is foul when overgrown with barnacles; a gun becomes foul from repeated firing; a well is foul with polluted water.
- adj. Scurrilous; obscene or profane; abusive; as, foul words; foul language.
- adj. Hateful; detestable; shameful; odious; wretched.
- adj. Loathsome; disgusting; as, a foul disease.
- adj. Ugly; homely; poor.
- adj. 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.
- adj. Not conformed to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.; unfair; dishonest; dishonorable; cheating; as, foul play.
- adj. nautical 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.
- adj. baseball Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.
- v. transitive To make dirty.
- v. transitive To besmirch.
- v. transitive To clog or obstruct.
- v. transitive, nautical To entangle.
- v. transitive, basketball To make contact with an opposing player in order to gain advantage.
- v. transitive, baseball To hit outside of the baselines.
- v. intransitive To become clogged.
- v. intransitive To become entangled.
- v. intransitive, basketball To commit a foul.
- v. intransitive, baseball To hit a ball outside of the baselines.
- n. sports A breach of the rules of a game, especially one involving inappropriate contact with an opposing player in order to gain an advantage; as, for example, foot-tripping in soccer, or contact of any kind in basketball.
- n. bowling A (usually accidental) contact between a bowler and the lane before the bowler has released the ball.
- n. baseball A foul ball, a ball which has been hit outside of the base lines.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete A bird.
- adj. Covered with, or containing, extraneous matter which is injurious, noxious, offensive, or obstructive; filthy; dirty; not clean; polluted; nasty; defiled.
- adj. Scurrilous; obscene or profane; abusive.
- adj. Hateful; detestable; shameful; odious; wretched.
- adj. Loathsome; disgusting.
- adj. obsolete Ugly; homely; poor.
- adj. Not favorable; unpropitious; not fair or advantageous; ; cloudy or rainy; stormy; not fair; -- said of the weather, sky, etc.
- adj. Not conformed to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.; unfair; dishonest; dishonorable; cheating.
- adj. Having freedom of motion interfered with by collision or entanglement; entangled; -- opposed to
clear . - v. To make filthy; to defile; to daub; to dirty; to soil.
- v. (Mil.) To incrust (the bore of a gun) with burnt powder in the process of firing.
- v. To cover (a ship's bottom) with anything that impered its sailing.
- v. To entangle, so as to impede motion; ; to come into collision with.
- v. To become clogged with burnt powder in the process of firing, as a gun.
- v. To become entagled, as ropes; to come into collision with something.
- n. An entanglement; a collision, as in a boat race.
- n. (Baseball) See Foul ball, under Foul, a.
- n. In various games or sports, an act done contrary to the rules; a foul stroke, hit, play, or the like.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter
- adj. (of a manuscript) defaced with changes
- v. hit a foul ball
- v. commit a foul; break the rules
- adj. offensively malodorous
- adj. especially of a ship's lines etc
- adj. highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust
- n. an act that violates the rules of a sport
- adj. characterized by obscenity
- adj. (of a baseball) not hit between the foul lines
- v. make unclean
- v. become soiled and dirty
- v. become or cause to become obstructed
- adj. violating accepted standards or rules
- v. spot, stain, or pollute
- v. make impure
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old English fūl ("foul, unclean, impure, vile, corrupt, rotten, guilty"), from Proto-Germanic *fūlaz (“foul, rotten”), from Proto-Indo-European *pū- (“to rot”). Cognate with Dutch vuil ("foul"), German faul ("foul"), Swedish ful ("foul"), Albanian fëlliq ("filth,dirt"), Latin puter ("rotten"). More at putrid. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English fūl; see pū̆- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
““Boleyn,” said Brandon, the word foul on his tongue.”
“In a brand-new interview revealed today, Michael ` s father, Joe, said he believes that there was what he calls foul play in his son ` s death.”
“You might notice that none of what you call foul language and cite in # 336 comes from me except for: “Dumbya always looks angry when things don’t quite work out the way he wanted.””
Think Progress » Rep. Jim Moran: Bush Was Warned To Be ‘Extra Sensitive’ About Webb’s Son
“It shouldn't matter what time of the game — a foul is a foul.”
“So it's not what they call a foul deck, that is a deck that they cannot land on but there are many, many more people on this deck than you would normally see when an aircraft lands.”
“Fire-wardens were appointed who peered around in all the kitchens, hunting for what they called foul chimney hearts, and they ordered flag-roofs and wooden chimneys to be removed, and replaced with stone or brick ones.”
“Best and hope you're liking it here,JerseyLifelong Yankee fanSouth of MiamiSo, why is call the foul pole?”
The Guardian: Texas Rangers vs. Detroit Tigers - live! | Steve Busfield
“Both were in foul trouble, with Boozer getting his third just before halftime when Williams already had two.”
“Bynum had seven points and three rebounds playing in foul trouble most of the game.”
“I have said this before and I will repeat it, a disparity in foul shots is indicative of which team is driving the ball in the paint.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘foul’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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SCIE - mathematics
The most frequent words in the titles of mathematical books and journals (www.sciencedirect.com)
nonparametric, nonparametric sta..., multivariate anal..., partial different..., multivariate, topology, stochastic, differential equa..., linear algebra, harmonic analysis, applied mathematics, combinatorial and 205 more...
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CULI - wine-tasting adjectives
In this area of expertise nouns are frequently used as adjectives (almond, bacon, cider, diesel, fennel, fresh-cut hay, wool) or new adjectives are formed (appley, berrylike, citrusy, full-bodied, ...
acetic, acidic, aged, angular, appley, astringent, attractive, austere, berrylike, big, bitter, brawny and 511 more...
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Beautiful and Ugly
Beautiful, attractive, well-formed
Ugly, unattractive, malformedadorable, alluring, angelic, appealing, appetizing, attractive, beaming, beauteous, beautiful, becoming, beguiling, bewitching and 180 more...
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Film
jidaigeki, samurai, Kurosawa, action, comedy, drama, Bergman, Buñuel, surreal, rotoscope, melodrama, Cinerama and 333 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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That STINKS!
Words having to do with terrible smells.
odor, putrid, stank, stink, smell, horrid, foul, putrecence, awful, rotting, garbage, toilet and 14 more...
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I am : dirty
dirty, stained, grubby, tainted, speckled, tarnished, smeared, filthy, muddy, smudged, grimy, foul and 3 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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savage215's Words
pipe, yankee, knickerbocker, tennis, plasma, magma, volcano, car, truck, television, tv, word and 445 more...
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Scriptie: The Fellowship of the Ring
the world is changed, much that once wa..., great rings, immortal, dwarf lords, miners, craftsmen, three, seven, nine, deceived, dark lord and 216 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for foul.

misterpolly Foul play was suspected by the detective (or by the referee/umpire). Dec 20, 2007