Foul /(foul)/

Foul

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.
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
— Milton.
Loathsome; disgusting; as, a foul disease.
Ugly; homely; poor. [Obs.]
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.

Foul anchor: See under Anchor.
Foul ball: a ball that first strikes the ground outside of the foul ball lines, or rolls outside of certain limits.
Foul ball lines: lines from the home base, through the first and third bases, to the boundary of the field.
Foul berth: a berth in which a ship is in danger of fouling another vesel.
Foul bill: a certificate, duly authenticated, that a ship has come from a place where a contagious disorder prevails, or that some of the crew are infected.
Foul copy: a rough draught, with erasures and corrections; -- opposed to fair or clean copy.
Foul proof: an uncorrected proof; a proof containing an excessive quantity of errors.
Foul strike: a strike by the batsman when any part of his person is outside of the lines of his position.
To fall foul: to fall out; to quarrel.
To fall foul of: See under Fall.
To make foul water: to sail in such shallow water that the ship's keel stirs the mud at the bottom.

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Fouled; p. pr. & vb. n. Fouling

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. (Mil.)
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.

v. i.

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. (Baseball)
In various games or sports, an act done contrary to the rules; a foul stroke, hit, play, or the like.