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fowl

[foul]

noun

the domestic or barnyard hen or rooster; chicken. Compare domestic fowl.

any of several other, usually gallinaceous, birds that are barnyard, domesticated, or wild, as the duck, turkey, or pheasant.

(in market and household use) a full-grown domestic fowl for food purposes, as distinguished from a chicken or young fowl.

the flesh or meat of a domestic fowl.

any bird (used chiefly in combination): waterfowl; wildfowl.

verb (used without object)

to hunt or take wildfowl.

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Fowl is one of our favorite verbs.

So is fletcherise. Does it mean:

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

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Origin:
before 900; Middle English foul, Old English fugol, fugel; cognate with Old Saxon fugal, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal (German Vogel)

Can be confused: foul, fowl.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To fowl

Example Sentences

The video shows several guinea fowl running confidently across a track.

But the problem is that the commission is neither fish nor fowl.

The geese's flight muscles also have more mitochondria-energy-producing structures inside cells-than their fellow fowl.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

fowl (faʊl)

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

—vb
5.	(intr) to hunt or snare wildfowl

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

fowl

O.E. fugel "bird," general Gmc. word (cf. Gothic fugls), from P.Gmc. *foglaz (cf. O.N. fugl, M.Du. voghel, Ger. vogel, Goth. fugls), probably by dissimilation from *flug-la-, lit. "flyer," from the same root as O.E. fleogan, modern fly (v.1). Originally "bird;" narrower sense

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of "domestic hen or rooster" (the main modern meaning) is first recorded 1580; in U.S. also extended to ducks and geese.

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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

fowl

see neither fish nor fowl.