FOUL

A bird. [Obs.] Chaucer.

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. My face is foul with weeping. Job. xvi. 16.

Scurrilous; obscene or profane; abusive; as, foul words; foul language.

Hateful; detestable; shameful; odious; wretched. "The foul with Sycorax." Shak. Who first seduced them to that foul revolt Milton.

Loathsome; disgusting; as, a foul disease.

Ugly; homely; poor. [Obs.] Chaucer. Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares. Shak.

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. So foul a sky clears not without a storm. Shak.

Not conformed to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.; unfair; dishonest; dishonorable; cheating; as, foul play.

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.

To make filthy; to defile; to daub; to dirty; to soil; as, to foul the face or hands with mire.

To incrust (the bore of a gun) with burnt powder in the process of firing.

To cover (a ship's bottom) with anything that impered its sailing; as, a bottom fouled with barnacles.

To entangle, so as to impede motion; as, to foul a rope or cable in paying it out; to come into collision with; as, one boat fouled the other in a race.

To become clogged with burnt powder in the process of firing, as a gun.

To become entagled, as ropes; to come into collision with something; as, the two boats fouled.

An entanglement; a collision, as in a boat race.

See Foul ball, under Foul, a.