befoul
/bɪˈfaʊl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.32 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To make foul; to soil; to contaminate, pollute.
verb
To make foul; to soil; to contaminate, pollute.
verb
To entangle or run against so as to impede motion.
Example Sentences
- "These heights are a desirable retreat, for less picturesque reasons—as an escape from a compound of vile smells perpetually arising from a great harbour full of stagnant water, and befouled by the refuse of innumerable ships with all sorts of cargoes: which, in hot weather, is dreadful in the last degree."
- "1897, Robert Gwynneddon Davies (translator), The Sleeping Bard by Ellis Wynne, London: Simplkon, Marshall & Co., Part I, At 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."
- "Only the four walls of his home still stood, blackened and smoking with the sluggish, stinking smoke that befouled the sea-wind."
- "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, There was a pool of perfect water. […] No cattle Had slobbered their muzzles in it And befouled it."
- "For its an ill Bird will befoule her own Nest […]"
- "“[…] But pray what smell is that? Sure your lapdog has befoul’d himself;—let me catch hold of the nasty cur, I’ll teach him better manners.”"
Etymology
From be- + foul.