Word.ws English Dictionary

foul

/faʊl/

foul adjective: covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.

Adjective

foul (comparative fouler, superlative foulest)

  1. Covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.
    • This cloth is too foul to use as a duster.
    • His foul hands got dirt all over the kitchen.
  2. Obscene, vulgar or abusive.
    • The rascal spewed forth a series of foul words.
    • His foul language causes many people to believe he is uneducated.
  3. Detestable, unpleasant, loathsome.
    • He has a foul set of friends.
    • […]Hast thou forgot / The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy / Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her?1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  4. Disgusting, repulsive; causing disgust.
    • This foul food is making me retch.
    • There was a foul smell coming from the toilet.
    Synonyms:
    rank, frightful
  5. (obsolete) Ugly; homely; poor.
    • Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  6. Unpleasant, stormy or rainy. (of the weather)
    • Some foul weather is brewing.
    • So foul a sky clears not without a storm.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  7. Dishonest or not conforming to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.
    • Foul play is not suspected.
  8. Entangled and therefore restricting free movement, not clear.
    • We've got a foul anchor.
    • A rope could get foul while it is being paid out.
  9. (with "of") Positioned on, in, or near enough to (a specified area) so as to obstruct it.
    • The bus had stopped just foul of the north track at the Erindale Station Road public railway crossing […] With the bus stationary, but still foul of the north track, the train struck one of its front mirrors.2015, Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Railway Investigation Report R13T0192
    • Ten of the freight train's wagons had derailed, two of them foul of the Down Fast. At 2308, the TPO struck one of them, causing the locomotive (86239) to jack-knife and turn so that it was almost touching the end wall of a house in The Russetts, a new-build row that sat close to the line.2026 March 18, Greg Morse, “1996 crash driving freight reforms”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 50
  10. Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.
    • Jones hit foul ball after foul ball.

Verb

foul (third-person singular simple present fouls, present participle fouling, simple past and past participle fouled)

  1. (transitive) To make dirty.
    • to foul the face or hands with mire
    • She's fouled her diaper.
    Synonyms:
    befoul, dirty, besmirch, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, befile
  2. (transitive) To besmirch.
    • He's fouled his reputation.
  3. (intransitive, transitive) 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).
    • The hair has fouled the drain.
    • The recent opening of the bridge at the south end of Lincoln Station has enabled trains to take water there without fouling the level crossings at both ends of the platforms.1959 November, P. W. B. Semmens, “Sunday Diversions on the East Coast Main Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 759
  4. (transitive) To entangle.
    • The kelp has fouled the prop.
    • The Indian's heart was sore for his boat; it looked as if nothing could save her. She was drifting more slowly now, her propeller fouled in kelp.1941, Emily Carr, chapter 18, in Klee Wyck
  5. (transitive) 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.
    • Smith fouled him hard.
    • The Gunners dominated for long periods but, against the run of play, Denilson fouled Max Gradel and Robert Snodgrass put Leeds ahead from the spot.2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, in BBC
  6. (intransitive) To commit a foul.
    • Smith fouled within the first minute of the quarter.
    • State begins fouling and UCLA misses a couple of front-end free throws on one-and-ones.2009, Brandon Lang, Stanley Cohen, Beating the Odds: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Sports Handicapper, →ISBN
  7. (transitive) To hit outside of the baselines.
    • Jones fouled the ball off the facing of the upper deck.
  8. (intransitive) To hit a ball outside of the baselines.
    • Jones fouled for strike one.
  9. (intransitive) To become clogged.
    • The drain fouled.
  10. (intransitive) To become entangled.
    • The prop fouled on the kelp.
  11. To come into contact or collide with.
    • The full capacity, however, requires a hopper of a size that takes the wagon body up to 11ft 11½in above rail level, which would foul many existing colliery screens.1963 July, “News and Comment: The future of coal by rail”, in Modern Railways, page 5

Noun

foul (plural fouls)

  1. A breach of the rules of a game, especially one involving inappropriate contact with an opposing player in order to gain an advantage; for example, tripping someone up in soccer, or contact of any kind in basketball.
    • A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.
      Gosling's plight worsened when he was soon shown a red card for...2011 December 10, Arindam Rej, “Norwich 4 - 2 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport
    • Even though we were swept, we did outstat the Fast Breakers in one category: they had six technical fouls for the series (three for Bibby, two for Matthews, and one for Shouse), and we totaled nine (three each for Mannion and me, one each for Jose Slaughter, Lewis, and Lamp).2011, Charley Rosen, Crazy Basketball: A Life In and Out of Bounds, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 216
  2. A (usually accidental) contact between a bowler and the lane before the bowler has released the ball.
  3. A foul ball, a ball which has been hit outside of the base lines.
    • Jones hit a foul up over the screen.
  4. A tangle or entanglement.
    • The baits are now cast clear of the boat, the lead being thrown into the water away from them; for if dropped on the snood, as I have seen done by many unthinking persons who have only been accustomed to chopstick lines, a foul is the natural result.1875, J.C. Wilcocks, The Sea-Fisherman, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 62

foul meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

foul in Hindi

foul
ख़बीस xabīs

foul in Tamil

அழுகலாட்டம், இழிவாக்கு, குற்றம், தவறு, முறைகேடு, முறைமீறு

foul in Marathi

foul, vile, filthy
हिडीस hiḍīs

foul in Urdu

بےہودہ, فاحش, فاحشہ, فحش, گندہ, غلیظ
More languagesFewer languages
foul in Bengali
ময়লা moẏla
foul in Telugu
ముక్క mukka, రోత rōta, కలుషము kaluṣamu
foul in Malayalam
ചീഞ്ഞുനാറുന്ന, ദുർഗന്ധമുള്ള, പൂതിഗന്ധമായ, കുത്സിതം
foul in Kannada
ಹೊಲಸು, ಕಟ್ಟಳೆತಪ್ಪಿದ, ಸಯ್ಯದ, ಹೊಲಸಾದ
foul in Punjabi
پلیت palīt
foul in Arabic
مُخَالَفَة muḵālafa
foul in Persian
فول fol, خطا xatâ

Examples of foul in a sentence

  • The air was so foul nobody could breathe.
  • A ship's bottom is foul when overgrown with barnacles
  • A well is foul with polluted water.
  • The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
  • Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
  • Cultural norms and social rules regulate whether someone can be among others or will be isolated, whether the sick will be considered foul or acceptable, and whether they are to be pitied or censured.1982 March 18, Eric J. Cassel[l], “The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine”, in The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 306...

All 40 example sentences with foul

Synonyms of foul

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of foul

Forms of foul

Adjective
comparativefouler
superlativefoulest
alternative form (obsolete)foule
Verb
third-person singular presentfouls
present participlefouling
past participlefouled
pastfouled
Noun
pluralfouls

Past tense of foul: fouled

Plural of foul: fouls

Origin of foul

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, vaul (“putrid, rotten”), Dutch vuil (“dirty, foul; lewd, obscene; dishonorable; illegal”), German faul (“foul, putrid, rotten; lazy”), Yiddish פֿױל (foyl, “putrid; lazy”), Danish ful (“nasty, ugly”), Icelandic fúll (“foul, rotten, sullen”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk ful (“clever, sly”), and Swedish ful (“ugly; bad, dirty”), Gothic 𐍆𐌿𐌻𐍃 (fuls, “fetid, foul, putrid”), and through Indo-European, with Latin puter (“decaying, rotten; friable, crumbling”), Greek πύο (pýo), πύον (pýon, “pus”), Albanian fëlliq (“to make dirty, sully”), Latvian pūt (“to rot”), Lithuanian pūti (“to rot”), Armenian փուտ (pʻut, “rottenness”), Persian پوده (pude, “rubbed, worn; foul, rotten; empty, hollow”), Sanskrit पूयति (pūyati, “to become foul; to stink”). More at putrid. Ancient Greek φαῦλος (phaûlos...

Inherited from Middle English foulen, fulen, from Old English fūlian (“to become foul; rot; decay”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūlēn, from Proto-Germanic *fūlāną (“to rot; decay”).

Words formed from foul

Phrases with foul

13 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with foul

15 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about foul

What does foul mean?
Foul means covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.
What is foul in Hindi?
Foul in Hindi is ख़बीस (xabīs). See Foul meaning in Hindi.
How do you use foul in a sentence?
The air was so foul nobody could breathe.
What part of speech is foul?
Foul can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce foul?
Foul is pronounced /faʊl/.

Words near foul in the dictionary

  1. foujdars
  2. foujdary
  3. Fouka
  4. foukousa
  5. foukousas
  6. foul
  7. foul anchor
  8. foul anchors
  9. foul ball
  10. foul balls
  11. foul berth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foul (page history and authors); ख़बीस (Hindi) (page history and authors); foul (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); हिडीस (Marathi) (page history and authors); foul (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ময়লা (Bengali) (page history and authors); కలుషము (Telugu) (page history and authors); foul (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); foul (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); پلیت (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-foul.ogg.

Cite this entry: “foul.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/foul. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.