See befoul in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for befoul meaning in English (5.8kB)
{
"etymology_templates": [
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"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*puH-"
},
"expansion": "",
"name": "root"
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{
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"1": "en",
"2": "be",
"3": "foul"
},
"expansion": "be- + foul",
"name": "prefix"
}
],
"etymology_text": "be- + foul",
"forms": [
{
"form": "befouls",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "befouling",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "befouled",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "befouled",
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"expansion": "befoul (third-person singular simple present befouls, present participle befouling, simple past and past participle befouled)",
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
"word": "afoul"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "1897, Robert Gwynneddon Davies (translator), The Sleeping Bard by Ellis Wynne, London: Simplkon, Marshall & Co., Part I,\nAt last, what with a round of blasphemy, and the whole crowd with clay pistols belching smoke and fire and slander of their neighbours, and the floor already befouled with dregs and spittle, I feared lest viler deeds should happen, and craved to depart."
},
{
"ref": "1983, Mary Stewart, chapter 5, in The Wicked Day, New York: William Morrow, page 53",
"text": "Only the four walls of his home still stood, blackened and smoking with the sluggish, stinking smoke that befouled the sea-wind.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"text": "1997, Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid, “Echo and Narcissus” in Paul Keegan (ed.), Ted Hughes: Collected Poems, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, p. 919,\nThere was a pool of perfect water.\n[…] No cattle\nHad slobbered their muzzles in it\nAnd befouled it."
}
],
"glosses": [
"To make foul; to soil; to contaminate, pollute."
],
"id": "en-befoul-en-verb-szraNfkA",
"links": [
[
"foul",
"foul"
],
[
"soil",
"soil"
],
[
"contaminate",
"contaminate"
],
[
"pollute",
"pollute"
]
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "zamǎrsjavam",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "замърсявам"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "nòngzāng",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "弄脏"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "verzieken"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "bevuilen"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "bezoedelen"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "verderben"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "deoreophida",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "더럽히다"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "la",
"lang": "Latin",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "inquinō"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "ota",
"lang": "Ottoman Turkish",
"roman": "kirlemek",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "كیرلمك"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "ota",
"lang": "Ottoman Turkish",
"roman": "pislemek",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "پیسلمك"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "ota",
"lang": "Ottoman Turkish",
"roman": "murdarlamak",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "مردارلامق"
},
{
"_dis1": "88 11 1 1",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "conspurcar"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1666, George Alsop, A Character of the Province of Mary-Land, London: Peter Dring, Preface",
"text": "For its an ill Bird will befoule her own Nest […]",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To defecate on, to soil with excrement."
],
"id": "en-befoul-en-verb-l4-Iii3p",
"links": [
[
"defecate",
"defecate"
],
[
"excrement",
"excrement"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(specifically) To defecate on, to soil with excrement."
],
"tags": [
"specifically"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "4 4 71 21",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1894, Hall Caine, The Manxman, London: Heinemann, Part 5, p. 282",
"text": "For three days Pete bore himself according to his wont, thinking to silence the evil tongues of the little world about him, and keep sweet and alive the dear name which they were waiting to befoul and destroy.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1923, James Branch Cabell, The High Place, London: John Lane, Part 2, Chapter 15",
"text": "[…] you combine a vulgar atheism and an iconoclastic desire to befoul the sacred ideas of the average man or woman, collectively scorned as the bourgeoisie——",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1927, Frances Noyes Hart, chapter 5, in The Bellamy Trial, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., published 1929, page 159",
"text": "There she sits before you, gentlemen, betrayed by her husband, befouled by every idle tongue that wags […]",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To stain or mar (for example with infamy or disgrace)."
],
"id": "en-befoul-en-verb-9M36AJQx",
"links": [
[
"stain",
"stain"
],
[
"mar",
"mar"
],
[
"infamy",
"infamy"
],
[
"disgrace",
"disgrace"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) To stain or mar (for example with infamy or disgrace)."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "5 2 90 3",
"sense": "stain or mar",
"word": "besmirch"
},
{
"_dis1": "5 2 90 3",
"sense": "stain or mar",
"word": "sully"
},
{
"_dis1": "5 2 90 3",
"sense": "stain or mar",
"word": "tarnish"
}
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"To entangle or run against so as to impede motion."
],
"id": "en-befoul-en-verb-he8Z4i4m",
"links": [
[
"entangle",
"entangle"
],
[
"impede",
"impede"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/bɪˈfaʊl/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-aʊl"
}
],
"word": "befoul"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English entries with incorrect language header",
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"English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European",
"English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *puH-",
"English terms prefixed with be-",
"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English verbs",
"Requests for review of Bulgarian translations",
"Rhymes:English/aʊl",
"Rhymes:English/aʊl/2 syllables"
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],
"etymology_text": "be- + foul",
"forms": [
{
"form": "befouls",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "befouling",
"tags": [
"participle",
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{
"form": "befouled",
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},
{
"form": "befouled",
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"pos": "verb",
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{
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"examples": [
{
"text": "1897, Robert Gwynneddon Davies (translator), The Sleeping Bard by Ellis Wynne, London: Simplkon, Marshall & Co., Part I,\nAt last, what with a round of blasphemy, and the whole crowd with clay pistols belching smoke and fire and slander of their neighbours, and the floor already befouled with dregs and spittle, I feared lest viler deeds should happen, and craved to depart."
},
{
"ref": "1983, Mary Stewart, chapter 5, in The Wicked Day, New York: William Morrow, page 53",
"text": "Only the four walls of his home still stood, blackened and smoking with the sluggish, stinking smoke that befouled the sea-wind.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"text": "1997, Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid, “Echo and Narcissus” in Paul Keegan (ed.), Ted Hughes: Collected Poems, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, p. 919,\nThere was a pool of perfect water.\n[…] No cattle\nHad slobbered their muzzles in it\nAnd befouled it."
}
],
"glosses": [
"To make foul; to soil; to contaminate, pollute."
],
"links": [
[
"foul",
"foul"
],
[
"soil",
"soil"
],
[
"contaminate",
"contaminate"
],
[
"pollute",
"pollute"
]
]
},
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{
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"text": "For its an ill Bird will befoule her own Nest […]",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To defecate on, to soil with excrement."
],
"links": [
[
"defecate",
"defecate"
],
[
"excrement",
"excrement"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(specifically) To defecate on, to soil with excrement."
],
"tags": [
"specifically"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1894, Hall Caine, The Manxman, London: Heinemann, Part 5, p. 282",
"text": "For three days Pete bore himself according to his wont, thinking to silence the evil tongues of the little world about him, and keep sweet and alive the dear name which they were waiting to befoul and destroy.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1923, James Branch Cabell, The High Place, London: John Lane, Part 2, Chapter 15",
"text": "[…] you combine a vulgar atheism and an iconoclastic desire to befoul the sacred ideas of the average man or woman, collectively scorned as the bourgeoisie——",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1927, Frances Noyes Hart, chapter 5, in The Bellamy Trial, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., published 1929, page 159",
"text": "There she sits before you, gentlemen, betrayed by her husband, befouled by every idle tongue that wags […]",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To stain or mar (for example with infamy or disgrace)."
],
"links": [
[
"stain",
"stain"
],
[
"mar",
"mar"
],
[
"infamy",
"infamy"
],
[
"disgrace",
"disgrace"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) To stain or mar (for example with infamy or disgrace)."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"To entangle or run against so as to impede motion."
],
"links": [
[
"entangle",
"entangle"
],
[
"impede",
"impede"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/bɪˈfaʊl/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-aʊl"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"sense": "stain or mar",
"word": "besmirch"
},
{
"sense": "stain or mar",
"word": "sully"
},
{
"sense": "stain or mar",
"word": "tarnish"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "zamǎrsjavam",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "замърсявам"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "nòngzāng",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "弄脏"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "verzieken"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "bevuilen"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "bezoedelen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "verderben"
},
{
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "deoreophida",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "더럽히다"
},
{
"code": "la",
"lang": "Latin",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "inquinō"
},
{
"code": "ota",
"lang": "Ottoman Turkish",
"roman": "kirlemek",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "كیرلمك"
},
{
"code": "ota",
"lang": "Ottoman Turkish",
"roman": "pislemek",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "پیسلمك"
},
{
"code": "ota",
"lang": "Ottoman Turkish",
"roman": "murdarlamak",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "مردارلامق"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to make foul, to soil",
"word": "conspurcar"
}
],
"word": "befoul"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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