[In form repr. OE. fúlian intr. = OHG. fûlén (MHG. vûlen, mod.G. faulen). In the trans. use, which begins in the 14th c., it may be regarded as a new formation; cf. FILE v.2, to which the early ME. fulen trans. belongs.]
1. intr. To be foul, become foul.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. (Sweet, 21). Ðær licȝað þa deadan men swa lange and ne fuliað.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Th.), xxxvii[i]. 5. Mine wunda rotedan and fuledon.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 37. Sume men ladeð here lif on etinge and on drinkinge alse swin, þe uulieð.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 269.
| So ferly fowled her flesch þat þe fende loked, | |
| How þe deȝter of þe douþe wern derelych fayre. |
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 41. So apt to foul, or difficult to clean as Wood.
1858. Greener, Gunnery, 400. Prince’s breech-loader … fouls in the proportion of at least 3 to 1 more.
2. trans. To render (materially) foul, filthy, or dirty; to destroy the cleanness or purity of; = DEFILE v.1 2, FILE v.2 1.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 937. Lest þt holy plase wt þat blod y folud shuld be.
c. 1440. Capgrave, Life St. Kath., v. 1594. It is neyther wurshipful ne honest On-to mankeende to foule soo his nest.
c. 1450. Bk. Curtasye, 109, in Babees Bk. (1868), 302.
| Also eschewe, with-outen stryfe, | |
| To foule þe borde clothe with þi knyfe. |
1526. Pilgf. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 177. He yt hath a precyous … garment, wyll he loth to … foule it.
1611. Bible, Ezek. xxxiv. 19. They drinke that which yee haue fouled with your feete.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 303. A close heavy substance, hard of Digestion, that fouls and makes the Blood thick and gross.
1705. Oliver, in Phil. Trans., XXV. 2181. ’Tis farther observable, he never foul’d his Bed, but did his necessary Occasions always in the Pot.
a. 1745. Swift, Wks. (1841), II. 355. She [the waitingmaid] fouls a smock more in one hour, than the kitchenmaid does in a week.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, II. 141. It fouls itself with a pale ochrous sediment.
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), II. xxii. 368. Any more than the wolf would forgive the lamb for fouling the water below him.
1883. Manch. Exam., 20 Nov., 5/5. Manchester gas is fouled by sulphur compounds.
b. absol. To cause filth or dirt, to drop ordure.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, G v. It fortuned that the swalowe dyd fowle within the eyen of Thobye, and a long tyme he was blynd.
1814. J. Gilchrist, Reason, 56. Thus, they croaked and crawled and spawned and fouled, till their filthiness actually caused pestilence, famine, disease, and death, in all the land of Egypt.
3. fig. and in immaterial sense. To defile or pollute (with guilt); to dishonor, disgrace.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10637 (Gött.). To saule þat fowlid was in sinne.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 137. Leste þe Fend and heore flesch · fouleden heore soules.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 264. Many þenken þei [þe freres] ben heretikes, and foulen men þat maynteynen hem.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well (E.E.T.S.), 297. For venyall synnes þat foulyth vs yche day.
1581. Savile, Tacitus’ Hist., I. xlii. 41. He cut his owne throate at length with a Razour, fouling his infamous life with a slow and dishonest departing.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus ii. 14. He careth not to be filthy still, yea and to fowle and besmeare all that come in his companie.
1748. Chesterf., Lett. (1792), II. cxxxix. 372. Your Commensaux, who disgrace and foul themselves with dirty w—s and scoundrel gamesters.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 15. Men unstained with the violence of the times, and with hands not fouled with confiscation and sacrilege.
1862. Goulburn, Pers. Relig., III. x. (1873), 241. There are many amusements, which to the pure are pure, but which with persons whose imaginations have been fouled by evil, and evil which, it may be, they have not yet thoroughly outgrown, would stimulate bad passions, or at least throw serious temptations in their way.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. II. 621.
| From this dear heart, no fear of death or shame, | |
| No weariness of good shall foul thy name. |
† b. To throw discredit on. Obs.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xvii. 62 (Add. MS.). The new lawe that he made, and fowled [v. r. fylid] not the other.
† c. To violate the chastity of, debauch. Obs.–1
1607. Tourneur, Rev. Trag., I. iii. Wks. 1878, II. 33. Sweare me to foule my sister!
4. To make ugly (see FOUL a. 11); to deface, disfigure, spoil the look of.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, iv. 7. Swa to foule þis ymage [of God] þt it kan noght knaw til whas lycnynge it is made.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 309.
| For comunelich in contrees · kammokes & wedes | |
| Fouleth þe fruite in þe felde · þere þei growe togyderes. |
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 23. So was the wiff fouled and maymed alle her lyff.
1557. Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 158.
| For he that sendeth grisely stormes | |
| with whisking windes and bitter blastes | |
| And fowlth with haile the winters face. |
1884. Browning, Ferishtah (1885), 25.
| Sure, thou art ignorant how close at hand | |
| Death presses, or the cloud, which fouled so late | |
| Thy face, had deepened down not lightened off. |
5. Chiefly Naut. Cf. FOUL a. 18. a. To cause (an anchor, a cable) to become entangled. Also, To jam or block, render immovable or incapable of working; to make (a sea bottom) ‘foul’ or obstructed.
1726. G. Roberts, Four Years’ Voy., 401. ’Tis generally said, That the West-of-England-men fouled this Bay, by heaving their Stone Ballast over-board in it.
1827. Hood, Sailor’s Apol. ii.
| ’Twas all along of Poll, as I may say, | |
| That fouled my cable, when I ought to slip. |
1835. Marryat, Pirate, viii. The sea-breeze has caught our craft; let them run up the inner jib, and see that she does not foul her anchor.
1885. Manch. Exam., 17 Jan., 5/4. The Manchester express … ran into a mineral train by which the line was fouled.
1892. Law Times Rep., LXV. 590/1. A ship … fouled her propeller.
1895. Daily News, 9 Sept., 3/3. Station him at the east … section of the Circus to prevent the traffic from east to west ‘fouling’ the crossing.
fig. 1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. xiv. His luck’s got fouled under the keels of the barges.
b. intr. To get foul; to become entangled.
1857. P. Colquhoun, Comp. Oarsman’s Guide, 32. To foul, or get foul, is to get entangled.
1860. C. Harrold, in Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 173. The chain fouled on the windlass.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, v. (1880), 166. He will be perpetually fouling in the branches above.
c. trans. To run foul of, collide with.
1859. Guardian, 2 March, 195. In attempting to make the harbour [she] … fouled the pier.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., ii. (1889), 16. He managed even to get into Iffley lock on the way up without fouling the gates, and was then and there complimented on his progress.
1868. Kinglake, Crimea (1877), IV. xiii. 389. Her bow swung to starboard; and, the distance to which she had veered not sufficing to keep the ships clear, her jib-boom fouled the jib-boom of the Agamemnon, and so caused the bow of the flagship to move some few feet towards the shore.
1875. W. S. Hayward, Love agst. World, 125. Keep to the left, or you’ll foul me and baulk the mare!
6. a. Sporting and Games. Cf. FOUL a. 14. To handle or strike an opponent in a ‘foul’ manner. b. Baseball. To hit a foul ball. To foul out: to be caught ‘out’ from a foul ball.
Hence Fouling ppl. a. Also Fouler, one that fouls or makes dirty.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., ix. (1889), 45. Fuliȝendum limum.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Praise cleane Linen, 13, Wks. II. 166. My prayers for the cleane amendment of all foulers of Linnen.
1896. Daily Chron., 23 March, 3/2. Ridding our soot-charged passages of the fouling stuff.
