foul.
Covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.
Meaning & usage
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.
Obscene, vulgar or abusive.
The rascal spewed forth a series of foul words.
His foul language causes many people to believe he is uneducated.
Detestable, unpleasant, loathsome.
He has a foul set of friends.
Disgusting, repulsive; causing disgust.
This foul food is making me retch.
There was a foul smell coming from the toilet.
Ugly; homely; poor.
Unpleasant, stormy or rainy. (of the weather)
Some foul weather is brewing.
Dishonest or not conforming to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.
Foul play is not suspected.
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.
(with "of") Positioned on, in, or near enough to (a specified area) so as to obstruct it.
Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.
Jones hit foul ball after foul ball.
Where this word comes from
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, “bad”) is a false cognate inasmuch as it is not from the same etymon, instead being cognate to few.
To make dirty.
to foul the face or hands with mire
She's fouled her diaper.
To besmirch.
He's fouled his reputation.
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.
To entangle.
The kelp has fouled the prop.
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.
To commit a foul.
Smith fouled within the first minute of the quarter.
To hit outside of the baselines.
Jones fouled the ball off the facing of the upper deck.
To hit a ball outside of the baselines.
Jones fouled for strike one.
To become clogged.
The drain fouled.
To become entangled.
The prop fouled on the kelp.
To come into contact or collide with.
Where this word comes from
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”).
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 (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.
A tangle or entanglement.
Where this word comes from
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”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.