foul

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   especially of a ship's lines etc

   with its sails afoul

2. 2
   adj

   offensively malodorous

   a foul odor

3. 3
   adj

   (of a manuscript) defaced with changes

   foul (or dirty) copy

4. 4
   verb

   make unclean

   foul the water

5. 5
   adj

   Covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.

   This cloth is too foul to use as a duster.

6. 6
   adj

   Obscene, vulgar or abusive.

   The rascal spewed forth a series of foul words.

7. 7
   adj

   Detestable, unpleasant, loathsome.

   He has a foul set of friends.

8. 8
   adj

   Disgusting, repulsive; causing disgust.

   This foul food is making me retch.

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, 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…