fowl

[ foul ]

noun

, plural fowls, (especially collectively) fowl.

1. the domestic or barnyard hen or rooster; chicken ( def ). Compare domestic fowl.
2. any of several other, usually gallinaceous, birds that are barnyard, domesticated, or wild, as the duck, turkey, or pheasant.
3. (in market and household use) a full-grown domestic fowl for food purposes, as distinguished from a chicken or young fowl.
4. the flesh or meat of a domestic fowl.
5. any bird (used chiefly in combination):

   waterfowl; wildfowl.

verb (used without object)

1. to hunt or take wildfowl.

fowl

/ faʊl /

noun

1. See domestic fowl
2. any other bird, esp any gallinaceous bird, that is used as food or hunted as game See also waterfowl wildfowl
3. the flesh or meat of fowl, esp of chicken
4. an archaic word for any bird

verb

1. intr to hunt or snare wildfowl

Word History and Origins

Origin of fowl¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English foul, fuhel, Old English fugol, fugel; cognate with Old Saxon fugal, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal ( German Vogel ), from Germanic fuglaz, a possible dissimilation of unattested fluglaz, from the same root as fly ²( def )

Word History and Origins

Origin of fowl¹

Old English fugol ; related to Old Frisian fugel , Old Norse fogl , Gothic fugls , Old High German fogal

Idioms and Phrases

see neither fish nor fowl .

Example Sentences

Vengeance Most Fowl, the pair's first full-length feature film in 19 years, will see the hapless inventor and his canine companion face their arch-enemy, the evil penguin Feathers McGraw.

From BBC

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is the pair's second feature-length film in the franchise, following The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2005.

From BBC

A herd of Irish Dexter cows, a passel of New Zealand Kunekune pigs, Babydoll Southdown sheep and assorted feathered fowl are just part of the menagerie living among fruit trees, vegetable gardens and lush native plants along a swale to capture rainwater.

From Los Angeles Times

Whispers of a “fowl plague” date back to the late 19th Century, while H5N1 specifically was first detected in 1996 in Chinese geese.

From Salon

Previous publicity for Vengeance Most Fowl revealed te film will see Wallace develop a "smart gnome" that seems to have a mind of its own.

From BBC

Related Words

• chicken
• goose
• hen
• pheasant