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foul

Pronunciation: /faʊl/

The English word “foul” has 20 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.
  2. Obscene, vulgar or abusive.
  3. Detestable, unpleasant, loathsome.
  4. Disgusting, repulsive; causing disgust.
  5. 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. Entangled and therefore restricting free movement, not clear.
  9. (with "of") Positioned on, in, or near enough to (a specified area) so as to obstruct it.
  10. Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.

verb

  1. To make dirty.
  2. To besmirch.
  3. To obstruct, block, or otherwise interfere with (something), for example by clogging (a drain, gun barrel, chimney, etc) or by being in the way of (a gunshot, etc).
  4. To entangle.
  5. To make make a play, such as a strong contact with an opposing player in order to gain advantage, that is deemed by the referee to have contravened the rules.
  6. To commit a foul.
  7. To hit outside of the baselines.
  8. To hit a ball outside of the baselines.
  9. To become clogged.
  10. To become entangled.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English ffoul, foul, foull, fowel, fowle, fuyle, voul, vul, 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- (“foul, rotten”). Cognates Cognate with Central Franconian fuul (“putrid, rotten; lazy, workshy”), Cimbrian baul,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.