foul

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Very unpleasant to smell, taste, or touch; disgusting.

   A foul smell came from the rubbish bin.

2. 2
   adj

   Rude, offensive, or obscene.

   He shouted a series of foul words at the referee.

3. 3
   adj

   Dirty; covered with unclean matter.

   This cloth is too foul to use as a duster.

4. 4
   verb

   To make something dirty or polluted.

   The factory was fined for fouling the river.

Common collocations

• foul language Adjective + noun

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”), I…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images