EnglishMain Dictionary
foul
Universal Words
adjective, verb, noun
adjective (fouler, foulest)
1 dirty and smelling bad:
foul air / breath * a foul-smelling prison * Foul drinking water was blamed for the epidemic.
2 (especially BrE) very unpleasant; very bad:
She's in a foul mood. * His boss has a foul temper. * This tastes foul.
3 (of language) including rude words and swearing
SYNOFFENSIVE:
foul language * He called her the foulest names imaginable. * I'm sick of her foul mouth (= habit of swearing).
4 (of weather) very bad, with strong winds and rain:
a foul night
5 (literary) very evil or wicked:
a foul crime / murder
foully adverb:
He swore foully. * She had been foully murdered during the night.
foulness noun [U]:
The air was heavy with the stink of damp and foulness.
IDIOMS
fall foul of sb / sth to get into trouble with a person or an organization because of doing sth wrong or illegal:
to fall foul of the law
moreatFAIRadj., CRYv.
verb
1 [VN] (in sport) to do sth to another player that is against the rules of the game:
He was fouled inside the penalty area.
2 [V, VN] (in baseball) to hit the ball outside the playing area
3 [VN] to make sth dirty, usually with waste material:
Do not permit your dog to foul the grass. * More and more beaches are being fouled by oil leakages.
4 ~ (sth) (up) to become caught or twisted in sth and stop it working or moving:
[VN] The rope fouled the propeller. * The line became fouled in (= became twisted in) the propeller. * [V] A rope fouled up (= became twisted) as we pulled the sail down.
PHRASALVERBS
foul up (informal) to make a lot of mistakes; to do sth badly:
I've fouled up badly again, haven't I?
relatednounFOUL-UP
foul sth<->up (informal) to spoil sth, especially by doing sth wrong:
Everything was going really well until Jack came along and fouled things up.
relatednounFOUL-UP
noun (in sport) an action that is against the rules of the game:
It was a clear foul by Ford on the goalkeeper. * (AmE) to hit a foul (= in baseball, a ball that is too far left or right, outside the lines that mark the side of the field)
seealsoPROFESSIONALFOUL
