noun
- An act that violates the rules of a sport.
verb
- Hit a foul ball.
- Make impure.
- usage: "The industrial wastes polluted the lake"
- synonyms: pollute, contaminate
- Become or cause to become obstructed.
- usage: "The leaves clog our drains in the Fall"; "The water pipe is backed up"
- Commit a foul; break the rules.
- Spot, stain, or pollute.
- usage: "The townspeople defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it"
- Make unclean.
- usage: "foul the water"
- Become soiled and dirty.
adjective
- Highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust.
- usage: "a disgusting smell"; "distasteful language"; "a loathsome disease"; "the idea of eating meat is repellent to me"; "revolting food"; "a wicked stench"
- synonyms: disgusting, disgustful, distasteful, loathly, loathsome, repellent, repellant, repelling, revolting, skanky, wicked, yucky
- Offensively malodorous.
- usage: "a foul odor"; "the kitchen smelled really funky"
- synonyms: fetid, foetid, foul-smelling, funky, noisome, smelly, stinking, ill-scented
- Violating accepted standards or rules.
- usage: "a dirty fighter"; "used foul means to gain power"; "a nasty unsporting serve"; "fined for unsportsmanlike behavior"
- synonyms: cheating, dirty, unsporting, unsportsmanlike
- Of a baseball. ( not hit between the foul lines)
- Of a manuscript. ( defaced with changes)
- usage: "foul (or dirty) copy"
- Characterized by obscenity.
- usage: "had a filthy mouth"; "foul language"; "smutty jokes"
- Disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter.
- usage: "as filthy as a pigsty"; "a foul pond"; "a nasty pigsty of a room"
- Especially of a ship's lines etc.
- usage: "with its sails afoul"; "a foul anchor"
WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
| APA | WordNet. (2010). Foul. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/foul/definitions/1174450 |
| Chicago | WordNet. 2010. "Foul" http://smartdefine.org/foul/definitions/1174450 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | WordNet 2010, Foul, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/foul/definitions/1174450>. |
| MLA | WordNet. "Foul" 23 October 2010. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/foul/definitions/1174450> |