FOUL, a.

1. Covered with or containing extraneous matter which is injurious, noxious or offensive; filthy; dirty; not clean; as, a foul cloth; foul hands; a foul chimney. My face is foul with weeping. Job xvi.
2. Turbid; thick; muddy; as foul water; a foul stream.
3. Impure; polluted; as, a foul mouth. Shak.
4. Impure; scurrilous; obscene or profane; as, foul words; foul language.
5. Cloudy and stormy; rainy or tempestuous; as foul weather.
6. Impure; defiling; as, a foul disease.
7. Wicked; detestable; abominable; as, a foul deed; a foul spirit. Babylon – the hold of every foul spirit. Rev. xviii.
8. Unfair; not honest; not lawful or according to established rules or customs; as foul play.
9. Hateful; ugly; loathsome. Hast thou forgot / The foul witch Cycorax? Shak.
10. Disgraceful; shameful; as, a foul defeat. Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? Milton.
11. Coarse; gross. They are all for rank and foul feeding. Felton.
12. Full of gross humors or impurities. You perceive the body of our kingdom / How foul it is. Shak.
13. Full of weeds; as, the garden is very foul.
14. Among seamen, entangled; hindered from motion; opposed to clear; as, a rope is foul.
15. Covered with weeds or barnacles; as, the ship has a foul bottom.
16. Not fair; contrary; as, a foul wind.
17. Not favorable or safe; dangerous; as, a foul road or bay. To fall foul, is to rush on with haste, rough force and unseasonable violence. #2. To run against; as, the ship fell foul of her consort. [These latter phrases show that this word is allied to the Fr. fouler, Eng. full, the sense of which is to press.]

To make filthy; to defile; to daub; to dirty; to bemire; to soil; as, to foul the clothes; to foul the face or hands. Ezek. xxxiv. 18.

1. A bird.
   
   
   [Obs.] Chaucer.
2. 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.

3. To make filthy] to defile; to daub; to dirty; to soil; as, to foul the face or hands with mire.
4. To become clogged with burnt powder in the process of firing, as a gun.
5. An entanglement; a collision, as in a boat race.
6. In various games or sports, an act done contrary to the rules; a foul stroke, hit, play, or the like.
7. Scurrilous; obscene or profane; abusive; as, foul words; foul language.
8. To incrust (the bore of a gun) with burnt powder in the process of firing.
9. To become entagled, as ropes; to come into collision with something; as, the two boats fouled.
10. See Foul ball, under Foul, a.
11. Hateful; detestable; shameful; odious; wretched.
    
    
    "The foul with Sycorax." Shak.

    Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? Milton.

12. To cover (a ship's bottom) with anything that impered its sailing; as, a bottom fouled with barnacles.
13. Loathsome; disgusting; as, a foul disease.
14. 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.
15. Ugly; homely; poor.
    
    
    [Obs.] Chaucer.

    Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares. Shak.

16. 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.

17. Not conformed to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.; unfair; dishonest; dishonorable; cheating; as, foul play.
18. 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. (Naut.) See under Anchor. -- Foul ball (Baseball), a ball that first strikes the ground outside of the foul ball lines, or rolls outside of certain limits. -- Foul ball lines (Baseball), lines from the home base, through the first and third bases, to the boundary of the field. -- Foul berth (Naut.), a berth in which a ship is in danger of fouling another vesel. -- Foul bill, or Foul bill of health, 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. "Some writers boast of negligence, and others would be ashamed to show their foul copies." Cowper. -- Foul proof, an uncorrected proof; a proof containing an excessive quantity of errors. -- Foul strike (Baseball), 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. [Obs.] "If they be any ways offended, they fall foul." Burton. -- To fall, or run, 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.