English Explanatory Dictionary

fowl

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A bird hunted or kept for food, grouped into landfowl (order Galliformes), also called gamefowl, and waterfowl (order Anseriformes: ducks, geese, swans, etc.), which together form the clade Galloanserae.
  2. Any bird.
verb
  1. To hunt fowl.
adj
  1. foul

Pronunciation

foul /faʊl/ en-us-fowl.ogg fou􂀽'əl /ˈfaʊ.əl/

Word forms

fowl fowls fowling fowled fowler fowlest

Etymology

From Middle English foul, foghel, fowel, fowele, from Old English fugol (“bird”), from Proto-West Germanic *fugl, from Proto-Germanic *fuglaz, dissimilated variant of *fluglaz (compare Old English flugol ‘fleeing’, Mercian fluglas heofun ‘birds of the air’), from *fleuganą (“to fly”). Cognate with West Frisian fûgel, Low German Vagel, Dutch vogel, German Vogel, Swedish fågel, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk fugl. Doublet of voël. More at fly.

Synonyms

fowl gamefowl poultry wildfowl

Related words

:Category:Birds

Derived words

antifowl Cochin fowl Dorking fowl fowl bluegrass fowl grass fowl meadow grass fowlery fowl-house fowlhouse fowlish fowlkind fowllike fowl-like fowl-lore fowl paralysis fowl pest fowlpox fowl-run fowlyard frizzle fowl gamefowl game fowl guinea-fowl guinea fowl helmeted guinea fowl junglefowl jungle fowl landfowl make fish of one and fowl of another mallee fowl moorfowl neither fish, flesh, nor fowl neither fish nor fowl peafowl Philippine fowl disease rockfowl scrubfowl seafowl Spanish fowl spurfowl waterfowl wildfowl wormfowl yardfowl fowler fowling
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