foul
pronunciation
How to pronounce foul in British English:
UK [faʊl]
How to pronounce foul in American English:
US [faʊl]
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- Noun:
- an act that violates of the rules of a sport
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- Verb:
- hit a foul ball
- make impure
- become or cause to become obstructed
- commit a foul; break the rules
- spot, stain, or pollute
- make unclean
- become soiled and dirty
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- Adjective:
- highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust
- offensively malodorous
- violating accepted standards or rules
- (of a baseball) not hit between the foul lines
- (of a manuscript) defaced with changes
- thoroughly unpleasant
- characterized by obscenity
- disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter
- especially of a ship's lines etc
Word Origin
- foul
- foul: [OE] The underlying meaning of foul is probably ‘rotten, putrid’, with overtones of ‘evilsmelling’. It goes back to an Indo-European *pu-, which may originally have been inspired by the same reaction as produced the English exclamation of disgust at a bad smell, pooh. Amongst its other off-spring were Latin pūs, source of English pus, purulent, and supurate, and Latin putridus, source of English putrid.Its Germanic descendant was *fu-, on which the adjective *fūlaz was based. This produced German faul ‘rotten, lazy’, Dutch vuil ‘dirty’, and English foul, and also the derived noun filth [OE]. Defile ‘make dirty’ is not directly related, but its form was influenced by the now obsolete verb befile, which was connected with foul.=> filth, pus, putrid, suppurate
- foul (adj.)
- Old English ful "rotten, unclean, vile, corrupt, offensive to the senses," from Proto-Germanic *fulaz (cognates: Old Saxon and Old Frisian ful, Middle Dutch voul, Dutch vuil, Old High German fül, German faul, Gothic füls), from PIE *pu- (2) "to rot, decay," perhaps from the sound made in reaction to smelling something bad (see pus). Old English ful occasionally meant "ugly" (as contrasted with fæger (adj.), modern fair (adj.)), and this sense became frequent in Middle English. The cognate in Swedish is the usual word for "ugly." Of weather from mid-14c. In the sporting sense of "irregular, unfair, contrary to established rule or practice" it is first attested 1797, though foul play is recorded from mid-15c. Baseball sense of "out of play" attested by 1860.
- foul (v.)
- Old English fulian "to become foul, rot, decay," from ful (see foul (adj.)). Transitive meaning "make foul, pollute" is from c. 1200. Meaning "become entangled" (chiefly nautical) is from 1832, probably from foul (adj.) in the sense "obstructed by anything fixed or attached" (late 15c.). "A term generally used in contrast to clear, and implies entangled, embarrassed or contrary to: e.g. to foul the helm, to find steerage impracticable owing to the rudder becoming entangled with rope or other gear" [Sir Geoffrey Callender, "Sea Passages," 1943]. Related: Fouled; fouling. Hence also foul anchor (1769), one with the slack of the cable twisted round the stock or a fluke; noted by 1832 as naval insignia.
Example
- 1. Ability to get to the foul line and make free throws ?
- 2. Even then , there were rumors of murder most foul .
- 3. The foul air in the cinema disgusts me .
- 4. Tens of thousands of chinese are reckoned to die each year because of foul air .
- 5. But raising fish in such close quarters can contribute to the spread of disease among the animals , and wastes may foul the waters .