Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares.
Shak.
6. Not favorable; unpropitious; not fair or advantageous; as, a foul
wind; a foul road; cloudy or rainy; stormy; not fair; -- said of the
weather, sky, etc.
So foul a sky clears not without a storm.
Shak.
7. Not conformed to the established rules and customs of a game,
conflict, test, etc.; unfair; dishonest; dishonorable; cheating; as,
foul play.
8. Having freedom of motion interfered with by collision or
entanglement; entangled; -- opposed to clear; as, a rope or cable may
get foul while paying it out.
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Foul anchor. (Naut.) See under Anchor. -- Foul ball (Baseball), a ball
that first strikes the ground outside of the foul ball lines, or rolls
outside of certain limits. -- Foul ball lines (Baseball), lines from
the home base, through the first and third bases, to the boundary of
the field. -- Foul berth (Naut.), a berth in which a ship is in danger
of fouling another vesel. -- Foul bill, or Foul bill of health, a
certificate, duly authenticated, that a ship has come from a place
where a contagious disorder prevails, or that some of the crew are
infected. -- Foul copy, a rough draught, with erasures and corrections;
-- opposed to fair or clean copy. "Some writers boast of negligence,
and others would be ashamed to show their foul copies." Cowper. -- Foul
proof, an uncorrected proof; a proof containing an excessive quantity
of errors. -- Foul strike (Baseball), a strike by the batsman when any
part of his person is outside of the lines of his position. -- To fall
foul, to fall out; to quarrel. [Obs.] "If they be any ways offended,
they fall foul." Burton. -- To fall, or run, foul of. See under Fall.
-- To make foul water, to sail in such shallow water that the ship's
keel stirs the mud at the bottom.
Foul (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fouled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Fouling.] 1.
To make filthy; to defile; to daub; to dirty; to soil; as, to foul the
face or hands with mire.
2. (Mil.) To incrust (the bore of a gun) with burnt powder in the
process of firing.
3. To cover (a ship's bottom) with anything that impered its sailing;
as, a bottom fouled with barnacles.
4. To entangle, so as to impede motion; as, to foul a rope or cable in
paying it out; to come into collision with; as, one boat fouled the
other in a race.
Foul, v. i. 1. To become clogged with burnt powder in the process of
firing, as a gun.
2. To become entagled, as ropes; to come into collision with something;
as, the two boats fouled.
Foul, n. 1. An entanglement; a collision, as in a boat race.