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Webster 1913 Edition

Fowl

Fowl

(foul)
,
Noun.
Instead of the pl.
Fowls
the singular is often used collectively
.
[OE.
foul
,
fowel
,
foghel
,
fuhel
,
fugel
, AS.
fugol
; akin to OS.
fugal
D. & G.
vogel
, OHG.
fogal
, Icel. & Dan.
fugl
, Sw.
fogel
,
fågel
, Goth.
fugls
; of unknown origin, possibly by loss of l, from the root of E.
fly
, or akin to E.
fox
, as being a tailed animal.]
1.
Any bird; esp., any large edible bird.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl
of the air.
Gen. i. 26.
Behold the
fowls
of the air; for they sow not.
Matt. vi. 26.
Like a flight of
fowl

Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts.
Shakespeare
2.
Any domesticated bird used as food, as a hen, turkey, duck; in a more restricted sense, the common domestic cock or hen (
Gallus domesticus
).
Barndoor fowl
, or
Barnyard fowl
,
a fowl that frequents the barnyard; the common domestic cock or hen.

Fowl

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Fowled
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Fowling
.]
To catch or kill wild fowl, for game or food, as by shooting, or by decoys, nets, etc.
Such persons as may lawfully hunt, fish, or
fowl
.
Blackstone.
Fowling piece
,
a light gun with smooth bore, adapted for the use of small shot in killing birds or small quadrupeds.

Webster 1828 Edition

Fowl

FOWL

,
Noun.
[L. fugio, fugo, Gr. and signifying the flying animal.]
A flying or winged animal; the generic name of certain animals that move through the air by the aid of wings. Fowls have two feet, are covered with feathers, and have wings for flight. Bird is a young fowl or chicken, and may well be applied to the smaller species of fowls. But it has usurped the place of fowl, and is used improperly as the generic term.
Fowl is used as a collective noun. We dined on fish and fowl.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air. Gen. 1.
But this use in America is not frequent. We generally use the plural, fowls. The word is colloquially used for poultry, or rather, in a more limited sense, for barn door fowls.

FOWL

,
Verb.
I.
To catch or kill wild fowls for game or food; as by means of bird-lime, decoys, nets and snares, or by pursuing them with hawks, or by shooting.

Definition 2024

fowl

fowl

English

Pronunciation

  • enPR: foul, IPA(key): /faʊl/
  • Homophone: foul
  • Rhymes: -aʊl
  • Rhymes: -aʊəl

Noun

fowl ‎(plural fowl or fowls)

  1. (archaic) A bird.
    • 1460-1500, The Towneley Playsː
      I see that it is good; now make we man to our likeness, that shall be keeper of mere & leas(ow), of fowls and fish in flood.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter xix, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII:
      And now I take vpon me the aduentures of holy thynges / & now I see and vnderstande that myn old synne hyndereth me and shameth me / so that I had no power to stere nor speke whan the holy blood appiered afore me / So thus he sorowed til hit was day / & herd the fowles synge / thenne somwhat he was comforted
  2. A bird of the order Galliformes, including chickens, turkeys, pheasant, partridges and quail.
  3. Birds which are hunted or kept for food, including Galliformes and also waterfowl of the order Anseriformes such as ducks, geese and swans.
Translations

Verb

fowl ‎(third-person singular simple present fowls, present participle fowling, simple past and past participle fowled)

  1. To hunt fowl.
    We took our guns and went fowling.

Anagrams

References

  1. ↑ C.T. Onions, ed., Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, s.v. "fowl" (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996), 374.

Etymology 2

Adjective

fowl ‎(comparative fowler, superlative fowlest)

  1. (obsolete) foul
    • Paradise Lost, John Milton
      Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view / Nor the deep Tract of ****, say first what cause / Mov'd our Grand Parents in that happy State / Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off / From their Creator, and transgress his Will / For one restraint, Lords of the World besides? / Who first seduc'd them to that fowl revolt?

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English fugol, from Proto-Germanic.

Noun

fowl (plural fowles)

  1. a bird
And smale fowles maken melodye
That slepen all the night with open ye - Chaucer, General Prologue, Canterbury Tales, ll.9-10

Etymology

From Middle English foul, foghel, from Old English fugol, from Proto-Germanic *fuglaz, dissimilated variant of *fluglaz (compare Old English flugol ‘fleeing’, Mercian fluglas heofun ‘fowls of the air’),[1] from *fleuganą ‘to fly’. Compare West Frisian fûgel, Low German Vagel, Dutch vogel, German Vogel, Swedish fågel, Danish fugl. More at fly.

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