foul

Meaning

Adj

1. Covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.
2. Obscene, vulgar or abusive.
3. Detestable, unpleasant, loathsome.
4. Disgusting, repulsive; causing disgust.
5. (obsolete) Ugly; homely; poor.
6. Unpleasant, stormy or rainy. (of the weather)
7. Dishonest or not conforming to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.
8. Entangled and therefore restricting free movement, not clear.
9. (with "of") Positioned on, in, or near enough to (a specified area) so as to obstruct it.
10. Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.

Verb

1. To make dirty.
2. To besmirch.
3. To clog or obstruct.
4. To entangle.
5. To make contact with an opposing player in order to gain advantage.
6. To commit a foul.
7. To hit outside of the baselines.
8. To hit a ball outside of the baselines.
9. To become clogged.
10. To become entangled.
11. To come into contact or collide with.

Noun

1. A breach of the rules of a game, especially one involving inappropriate contact with an opposing player in order to gain an advantage; for example, tripping someone up in soccer, or contact of any kind in basketball.
2. A (usually accidental) contact between a bowler and the lane before the bowler has released the ball.
3. A foul ball, a ball which has been hit outside of the base lines.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/faʊl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English foul, from Old English fūl (“foul, dirty, unclean, impure, vile, corrupt, rotten, stinking, guilty”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūl, from Proto-Germanic *fūlaz (“foul, rotten”), from Proto-Indo-European *puH- (“to rot”).
Cognate with Dutch vuil (“foul, dirty, filthy, obscene, lewd”), German faul (“foul, rotten, putrid, lazy”), German Low German fuul (“foul, rotten, putrid”), Faroese fúlur (“foul”), Icelandic fúll (“foul, rotten, sullen”), Danish ful (“nasty, ugly”), Norwegian Bokmål ful (“clever, sly”), Norwegian Bokmål ful (“clever, sly”) and Swedish ful (“ugly, dirty, bad”), and through Indo-European, with Albanian fëlliq (“to make dirty”), Latin puter (“rotten”). More at putrid.
Ancient Greek φαῦλος (phaûlos, “bad”) is a false cognate inasmuch as it is not from the same etymon, instead being cognate to few.