FOUL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Foul

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/faʊl/ Listen

Foul

adjective

(compar. fouler; superl. foulest)

1.

Highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust. Synonyms: disgustful, disgusting, distasteful, loathly, loathsome, repellant, repellent, repelling, revolting, skanky, wicked, yucky. "Distasteful language" , "A loathsome disease" , "The idea of eating meat is repellent to me" , "Revolting food" , "A wicked stench"

2.

Offensively malodorous. Synonyms: fetid, foetid, foul-smelling, funky, ill-scented, noisome, smelly, stinking. "The kitchen smelled really funky"

3.

Violating accepted standards or rules. Synonyms: cheating, dirty, unsporting, unsportsmanlike. "Used foul means to gain power" , "A nasty unsporting serve" , "Fined for unsportsmanlike behavior"

4.

(of a baseball) not hit between the foul lines.

5.

(of a manuscript) defaced with changes. Synonyms: dirty, marked-up.

6.

Characterized by obscenity. Synonyms: cruddy, filthy, nasty, smutty. "Foul language" , "Smutty jokes"

7.

Disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter. Synonyms: filthy, nasty. "A foul pond" , "A nasty pigsty of a room"

8.

Especially of a ship's lines etc. Synonyms: afoul, fouled. "A foul anchor"

noun

1.

An act that violates the rules of a sport.

verb

(past & past part. fouled; pres. part. fouling)

1.

Hit a foul ball.

2.

Make impure. Synonyms: contaminate, pollute.

3.

Become or cause to become obstructed. Synonyms: back up, choke, choke off, clog, clog up, congest. "The water pipe is backed up"

4.

Commit a foul; break the rules.

5.

Spot, stain, or pollute. Synonyms: befoul, defile, maculate.

6.

Make unclean.

7.

Become soiled and dirty.

See more definitions of Foul...

See images of 'Foul'

Antonyms of 'Foul'

Etymology of 'Foul'

Related searches:

foul-weather gear

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Foul" Quotes from Famous Books

... head,—huge, inhuman, and monstrous,—leering in bestial degradation, too foul to be either pictured or described, or to be beheld for more than an instant: yet let it be endured for that instant; for in that head is embodied the type of the evil spirit to which Venice was abandoned in the fourth period ...

— The Stones of Venice, Volume III (of 3) • John Ruskin

... many a kind turn; never an unkind one. He fought for love, not for hatred. He loved a dog—if any one kicked it, he fought him. He loved a little boy—if any one was cruel to that little boy, he fought him. He loved fair play—if any one was guilty of foul play, he fought him. When he was guilty of foul play himself (as was sometimes the case, for who is perfect?) he felt inclined to jump out of his own body and turn about and thrash himself! And he would have done so often, had it been practicable. Yes, there is no doubt whatever about ...

— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne

... his Saviour. And yet, alas! we do not find it so. In a great many instances, the very first thing professing Christians do, is to resist and reject this doctrine of holiness as if it were the most foul ...

— Godliness • Catherine Booth

... he knows that, as long as the ship holds together, some seventy or eighty miles per day nearer home must be placed to her credit? In like manner, it is of the deepest comfort to know that, storm or calm, fair or foul, the current of time, unhasting, unresting, bears us on to the goal that we shall surely reach—the ...

— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen

... a good book, being rich in Examples and warnings to lions high-bred, How they suffer small mongrelly curs in their kitchen, Who'll feed on them living, and foul them ...

— The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals, Volume 2. • Lord Byron

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com