Dictionary Definition
foul adj
1 highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust;
"a disgusting smell"; "distasteful language"; "a loathsome
disease"; "the idea of eating meat is repellent to me"; "revolting
food"; "a wicked stench" [syn: disgusting, disgustful, distasteful, loathly, loathsome, repellent, repellant, repelling, revolting, skanky, wicked, yucky]
2 offensively malodorous; "a putrid smell" [syn:
fetid, foetid, foul-smelling,
funky, noisome, smelly, putrid, stinking]
3 violating accepted standards or rules; "a dirty
fighter"; "used foul means to gain power"; "a nasty unsporting
serve"; "fined for unsportsmanlike behavior" [syn: cheating(a),
dirty, unsporting, unsportsmanlike]
4 (of a baseball) not hit between the foul lines
[ant: fair]
6 thoroughly unpleasant; "filthy (or foul or
nasty or vile) weather we're having" [syn: filthy, nasty, vile]
7 characterized by obscenity; "had a filthy
mouth"; "foul language"; "smutty jokes" [syn: filthy, nasty, smutty]
8 disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with
offensive matter; "as filthy as a pigsty"; "a foul pond"; "a nasty
pigsty of a room" [syn: filthy, nasty]
9 especially of a ship's lines etc; "with its
sails afoul"; "a foul anchor" [syn: afoul(ip),
fouled] n : an act that
violates of the rules of a sport
Verb
1 hit a foul ball
2 make impure; "The industrial wastes polluted
the lake" [syn: pollute,
contaminate]
3 become or cause to become obstructed; "The
leaves clog our drains in the Fall"; "The water pipe is backed up"
[syn: clog, choke off,
clog up,
back up,
congest, choke] [ant: unclog]
4 commit a foul; break the rules
5 spot, stain, or pollute; "The townspeople
defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it" [syn: befoul, defile, maculate]
6 make unclean; "foul the water"
7 become soiled and dirty
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- foul, /faʊl/, /faUl/
- Homophones: fowl
Etymology 1
From fūl.Adjective
- Covered with, or containing, extraneous matter which is
injurious, noxious, offensive, or obstructive; filthy; dirty; not
clean; polluted; nasty; defiled; as, a foul cloth; foul hands; a
foul chimney; foul air; a ship's bottom is foul when overgrown with
barnacles; a gun becomes foul from repeated firing; a well is foul
with polluted water.
- Cap'n, she's all fouled up.
- Scurrilous; obscene or profane; abusive; as, foul words; foul
language.
- The rascal spewed forth a series of foul pronouncements.
- Hateful; detestable; shameful; odious; wretched.
- He has a foul set of friends.
- Loathsome; disgusting; as, a foul disease.
- This foul food is making me wretch.
- Ugly; homely; poor.
- Not favorable; unpropitious; not fair or advantageous; as, a
foul wind; a foul road; cloudy or rainy; stormy; not fair; -- said
of the weather, sky, etc.
- Some foul weather is brewing.
- Not conformed to the established rules and customs of a game,
conflict, test, etc.; unfair; dishonest; dishonorable; cheating;
as, foul play.
- Foul play is not suspected.
- Having freedom of motion interfered with by collision or
entanglement; entangled; -- opposed to clear; as, a rope or cable
may get foul while paying it out.
- We've got a foul anchor.
- Outside of the base lines.
- Jones hit foul ball after foul ball.
Translations
Covered with, or containing, extraneous matter
which is injurious, noxious, offensive, or obstructive
- Finnish: likainen, saastainen, epäpuhdas
- German: schmutzig, stinkend, unrein
Scurrilous; obscene or profane; abusive; as,
foul words; foul language
Hateful; detestable; shameful; odious; wretched
- Finnish: häijy
- German: garstig, stinkend, widerlich
Loathsome; disgusting; as, a foul disease
- German: garstig, faul, widerlich
Ugly; homely; poor
Not favorable; unpropitious
Not conformed to the established rules and
customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.
Having freedom of motion interfered with by
collision or entanglement
Outside of the base lines
Etymology 2
From fūlian.Verb
- To make dirty.
- He's fouled her diapers.
- To besmirch.
- He's fouled his reputation.
- To clog or obstruct.
- The hair has fouled the drain.
- transitive nautical
To entangle.
- The kelp has fouled the prop.
- transitive basketball To make contact
with an opposing player in order to gain advantage.
- Smith fouled him hard.
- transitive baseball
To hit outside of the baselines.
- Jones fouled the ball off the facing of the upper deck.
- To become clogged.
- The drain fouled.
- To become entangled.
- The prop fouled on the kelp.
- intransitive basketball To commit a foul.
- Smith fouled within the first minute of the quarter.
- intransitive baseball To hit a ball outside
of the baselines.
- Jones fouled for strike one.''
Translations
to make dirty
- Finnish: liata, tahrata
- German: verschmutzen
to besmirch
- Finnish: tahrata
- German: verschmutzen
to clog or obstruct
- Finnish: tukkia
- German: verschmutzen, verstopfen
to entangle
- German: verwirren, verwickeln
to make contact with an opposing player in order
to gain advantage
To become clogged
- Finnish: tukkeutua
- German: verstopfte
To become entangled
- Finnish: sotkeutua
- German: verwirrte, verwickelte
To commit a foul
- German: foulte
To hit a ball outside of the baselines
- German: foulte
Noun
- A breach of the rules of a game, especially one involving inappropriate contact with an opposing player in order to gain an advantage; as, for example, foot-tripping in soccer, or contact of any kind in basketball.
- A (usually accidental) contact between a bowler and the lane before the bowler has released the ball.
- A foul
ball, a ball which has been hit outside of the base lines.
- Jones hit a foul up over the screen.
Translations
offence in sports
- Czech: faul
- Finnish: rike, rikkominen
- German: Foul
- Hungarian: szabálytalanság, falt (informal)
Extensive Definition
Foul may refer to:
- Foul (football), in football (soccer), an unfair act by a player as deemed by the referee
- Foul ball, in baseball, a batted ball that lands in foul territory
- Foul Madammas, a Middle Eastern food made from fava beans
- Foul play, a synonym for "crime"
- Foul Play, a 1978 movie
- Flagrant foul, in basketball, unsportsmanlike contact behavior, considered the most serious foul and often resulting in ejection
- Personal foul, in basketball, illegal personal contact with an opponent
- Professional foul, in football (soccer) or rugby, a deliberate act of foul play, usually to prevent an opponent scoring
- Technical foul, in basketball, unsportsmanlike non-contact behavior, a more serious infraction than a personal foul
See also
foul in German: Foul
foul in Hebrew: עבירה (ספורט)
foul in Italian: Fallo (sport)
foul in Japanese: ファール
foul in Lithuanian: Pražanga
foul in Slovak: Faul
foul in Swedish: Foul
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Fescennine, Rabelaisian, abase, abeyant, abhorrent, abject, abominable, abuse, abusive, adulterate, adulterated, adverse, affronting, afoul, amoral, angry, apathetic, arrant, asperse, atrocious, awful, bad, bad for, bag, bang, bang into, bar, barfy, base, bawdy, beastly, befoul, beggarly, begrime, belittle, belittling, below contempt,
below the belt, benasty,
beneath contempt, bent,
besmirch, besoil, bind, black, blacken, blamable, blameworthy, blasphemous, block, block up, blockade, blocked, blow, blue, blustery, botch, bound, brackish, brutal, bugger up, bump, bump into, bung, bungle, calumniatory, calumnious, cankered, cannon, carious, carom, carom into, cataleptic, catatonic, catch, caught, caulk, cheesy, chink, choke, choke off, choke up,
choked, choked up,
clash, clog, clog up, clogged, clogged up, cloudy, cloying, coarse, collide, come into collision,
comminatory,
concuss, confront each
other, congest, congested, constipate, constipated, contaminate, contaminated, contemptible, contumelious, convert, cork, corrupt, costive, cover, crack up, crappy, crash, crash into, criminal, crooked, crude, crummy, crump, crunch, cursing, cyclonic, dam, dam up, damnable, damnatory, dangerous, dark, dash into, dead, debase, debased, decayed, decomposed, defalcate, defamatory, defame, defile, defiled, degrade, degraded, demean, denigrate, denunciatory, deplorable, depraved, deprecative, deprecatory, depreciate, depreciative, depreciatory, derisive, derisory, derogate, derogatory, desecrate, despicable, detestable, devaluate, dire, dirty, disagreeable, discredit, disgrace, disgraceful, disgusting, dishonest, dishonor, dishonorable, disparage, disparaging, divert, dopey, dormant, double-dealing,
dreadful, dull, dysphemistic, egregious, embezzle, encounter, enmesh, enmeshed, enormous, ensnare, ensnared, entangle, entangled, entrap, epithetic, evil, excommunicative,
excommunicatory,
execrable, execratory, fall foul of,
fecal, feculent, festering, fetid, fill, fill up, filthy, flagitious, flagrant, flat, flyblown, forbidden, forbidding, foul play, foul
up, foul-mouthed, foul-spoken, foul-tongued, fouled, fraudulent, frightful, frowsty, frowy, frowzy, full, fulminatory, fulsome, funky, fusty, gamy, gangrened, gangrenous, ghastly, gloppy, gone bad, goof up,
grave, graveolent, grievous, grime, grisly, groggy, gross, grubby, gruesome, gunky, harmful, harpoon, hateful, heavy, heinous, hideous, high, hit, hit against, hook, horrible, horrid, hurt, hurtle, icky, ignoble, ignominious, ill-smelling,
illegal, illegality, immodest, immoral, impinge, imprecatory, improper, impure, in abeyance, in suspense,
in trouble, inactive,
indecent, indelicate, inert, infamous, infarcted, infect, infraction, infringement, iniquitous, injurious, insalubrious, insanitary, insulting, interdicted, invective, ithyphallic, jam, jammed, knavish, knock, knock against, lamentable, land, languid, languorous, lasso, latent, leaden, lewd, licentious, lifeless, little, loathsome, logy, louse up, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, lurid, maggoty, maladminister, maledictory, maligning, malodorous, mangy, mawkish, mean, measly, meet, mephitic, mesh, mess, mess up, miasmal, miasmic, mildewed, mildewy, misapply, misappropriate, misemploy, miserable, mishandle, mismanage, misuse, moldy, monstrous, morbific, mortified, mouldy, muck up, mucky, muff, musty, nail, nasty, naughty, nauseant, nauseating, nauseous, necrosed, necrotic, nefarious, net, nidorous, noisome, noose, not cricket, not fair,
notorious, noxious, objectionable, objurgatory, obnoxious, obscene, obstipate, obstipated, obstruct, obstructed, odious, odorous, off, off color, offensive, olid, ordurous, outrageous, overripe, pack, packed, paltry, passive, pathogenic, peccant, peculate, percuss, perfidious, pervert, pestiferous, petty, phlegmatic, pilfer, pitiable, pitiful, plug, plug up, plugged, plugged up, poisonous, poky, pollute, polluted, poor, pornographic, profane, prohibited, prostitute, puky, putrefacient, putrefactive, putrefied, putrescent, putrid, raging, rainy, rancid, rank, raunchy, raw, reasty, reasy, rebarbative, reechy, reeking, reeky, regrettable, repellent, repelling, reprehensible, reprobate, reptilian, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, ribald, risque, rope, rotten, rotting, rough, rude, ruin, run into, sack, sad, salacious, scabby, scandalous, scatologic, scatological, schlock, scornful, screw up, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurfy, scurrile, scurrilous, scurvy, sedentary, septic, shabby, shady, shameful, shitty, shocking, shoddy, sickening, sideswipe, sinful, slabby, slack, slam into, slanderous, sleeping, sleety, slimy, sloppy, sloshy, sludgy, sluggish, slumbering, slushy, smack into, small, smash, smash into, smash up,
smear, smellful, smelling, smelly, smirch, smoking-room, smoldering, smooch, smudge, smutty, snafu, snag, snare, snarl, snarled, sniggle, snowy, soil, soiled, soily, sordid, soured, spear, sphacelated, spile, spoil, spoiled, sposhy, squalid, stagnant, stain, stale, stanch, standing, static, stay, stench, stenchy, stinking, stop, stop up, stopped, stopped up, stopper, stopple, storming, stormy, strike, strike against, strong, stuff, stuff up, stuffed, stuffed up, stuffy, suggestive, sulfurous, sully, sultry, suppurating, suppurative, suspended, taint, tainted, take, tame, tangle, tangle up with, tangled, tarnish, tempestuous, terrible, too bad, tornadic, torpid, traitorous, trap, treacherous, turbulent, turned, twist, two-faced, typhonic, typhoonish, ulcerated, unaroused, unchaste, unclean, uncleanly, uncouth, underhanded, unfair, unfairness, unfavorable, unforgivable, unhealthful, unhealthy, unhygienic, unjust, unmentionable, unpardonable, unprintable, unrepeatable, unsanitary, unscrupulous, unspeakable, unsporting, unsportsmanlike,
unsportsmanlikeness,
unsportsmanliness,
unsportsmanly,
unwholesome,
unworthy, venal, vicious, vile, villainous, violate, violation, vitiate, vituperative, vomity, vulgar, weevily, wet, whomp, wicked, windy, woeful, wormy, worst, worthless, wretched, wrong, yecchy, yucky