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foul

/faʊl/noun, verb, adjective1 syllable

Foul means: highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust.

Synonyms for foul71

verb, as in become or cause to become obstructed

clog, choke off, clog up, back up, congest, choke, crap up

verb, as in spot, stain, or pollute

befoul, defile, maculate

verb, as in make impure

pollute, contaminate

adjective, as in highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust

disgusting, disgustful, distasteful, loathly, loathsome, repellent, repellant, repelling, revolting, skanky, wicked, yucky, offensive

adjective, as in offensively malodorous

fetid, foetid, foul-smelling, funky, noisome, smelly, stinking, ill-scented, malodorous, malodourous, unpleasant-smelling, ill-smelling, stinky

adjective, as in violating accepted standards or rules

cheating, dirty, unsporting, unsportsmanlike, unfair, unjust

adjective, as in characterized by obscenity

cruddy, filthy, nasty, smutty, dirty

adjective, as in disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter

filthy, nasty, dirty, soiled, unclean

adjective, as in (of a manuscript) defaced with changes

dirty, marked-up, illegible

adjective, as in especially of a ship's lines etc

afoul, fouled, tangled

adjective, as in (of a baseball) not hit between the foul lines

out-of-bounds

also used for foul

shameful, odious, wretched, frightful, rank, besmirch, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, befile, denigrate, diss

Includes material from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Opposites of foul

What does foul mean?16

adjective

1

highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust“a disgusting smell”

2

offensively malodorous“a foul odor”

3

violating accepted standards or rules“a dirty fighter”

4

characterized by obscenity“had a filthy mouth”

5

disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter“as filthy as a pigsty”

6

(of a manuscript) defaced with changes“foul (or dirty) copy”

7

especially of a ship's lines etc“with its sails afoul”

8

(of a baseball) not hit between the foul lines

verb

1

become or cause to become obstructed“The leaves clog our drains in the Fall”

2

spot, stain, or pollute“The townspeople defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it”

3

make impure“The industrial wastes polluted the lake”

4

hit a foul ball

5

commit a foul; break the rules

6

make unclean“foul the water”

7

become soiled and dirty

noun

1

an act that violates the rules of a sport

Definitions from the Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

What rhymes with foul?3

one syllable

owlhowlgrowl
Show 40 near rhymes

Foul in a sentence

  • She discovered a foul odor coming from her kitchen sink, indicating a problem.Amastan
  • If what he did wasn't a foul, what else was it?andresangelini
  • There was a foul in the build-up play, and the goal was disallowed.sundown
  • I just opened the lid, and a foul smell filled my nose.aeriph
  • If you touch the ball with your hands, the referee will call a foul.Nylez
  • The room hasn't been cleaned recently, so it now has a foul aroma.orcrist
  • Hate mail often contains exceptionally abusive, foul or otherwise hurtful language.CM
  • There was a strange, foul-smelling brown liquid in the waste basket.mervert1

Sentences from Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR, credited to their authors.

Forms of foul

as a noun

plural
fouls

as a verb

past tense
fouled
present participle
fouling
third-person singular
fouls
past participle
fouled

as a adjective

comparative
fouler
superlative
foulest