1. Highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust
   "the town's foul smell was from the factory nearby";
   - disgusting, disgustful [archaic], loathly [literary], loathsome, repellent, repellant, revolting, wicked, yucky [informal], gross-out [informal], loathful [archaic], yukky [informal], sickening, nauseating, vile
    
2. Violating accepted standards or rules
   "used foul means to gain power";
   - cheating, dirty, unsporting, unsportsmanlike
    
3. Having an offensive or unpleasant smell
   "a foul odour"; "a foul-smelling odour";
   - fetid, foetid [Brit], foul-smelling, funky [N. Amer, informal], noisome, smelly, stinking, ill-scented, olid [literary]
    
4. Disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter
   "a foul pond";
   - filthy, nasty, cruddy [informal], skanky [informal]
    
5. Characterized by obscenity
   "foul language";
   - filthy, nasty, smutty
    
6. (of a manuscript) defaced with changes
   "foul copy";
   - dirty, marked-up
    
7. (nautical) not having freedom of motion due to collision or entanglement; entangled
   "a foul anchor";
   - afoul, fouled
    
8. (of a baseball) not hit between the foul lines
   "The batter hit a foul ball into the stands"

1. (sport) an act that violates the rules of a sport
   "The referee called a foul on the defender for tripping the striker"

1. Commit a foul; break the rules
   "The defender fouled the striker in the penalty area"
    
2. Make unclean
   "foul the water"
    
3. Spoil, spot, stain, or pollute
   "The townspeople fouled the river by emptying raw sewage into it";
   - befoul, defile, maculate [literary]
    
4. Make impure in a bad way; make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted substance
   "The industrial wastes fouled the lake";
   - pollute, contaminate
    
5. Become soiled and dirty
   "The white shirt fouled quickly in the muddy conditions"
    
6. Become or cause to become obstructed
   "The leaves foul our drains in the Fall";
   - clog, choke off, clog up, back up, congest, choke
    
7. (baseball) hit a foul ball
   "He fouled off three pitches before striking out"

Sounds like: forwards, forewofoul

Derived forms: fouler, fouled, fouls, fouling, foulest

See also: dirty, distasteful, gut-wrenching, illegible, ill-smelling, malodorous, malodourous [Brit, Cdn, non-standard], minging [Brit, informal], niffy [Brit, informal], offensive, out-of-bounds, pongy [Brit, informal], soiled, stinky [informal], tangled, unclean, unfair, unjust, unpleasant-smelling, unsavory [US], unsavoury [Brit, Cdn], whiffy [Brit, informal]

Type of: alter, attaint [archaic], begrime, bemire [archaic], block, change, close up, colly [archaic], dirty, disgrace, dishonor [US], dishonour [Brit, Cdn], grime, hit, impede, infringement, jam, modify, obstruct, obturate, occlude, play, shame, soil, violation

Antonym: fair

Encyclopedia: Foul