noun
1.
the domestic or barnyard hen or rooster; chicken. Compare domestic fowl.
2.
any of several other, usually gallinaceous, birds that are barnyard, domesticated, or wild, as the duck, turkey, or pheasant.
3.
(in market and household use) a full-grown domestic fowl for food purposes, as distinguished from a chicken or young fowl.
4.
the flesh or meat of a domestic fowl.
5.
any bird (used chiefly in combination): waterfowl; wildfowl.
verb (used without object)
6.
to hunt or take wildfowl.
00:10
Fowl
is one of our favorite verbs.
So is absquatulate. Does it mean:
| to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax. |
| to flee; abscond: |
Origin:
before 900; Middle English foul, Old English fugol, fugel; cognate with Old Saxon fugal, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal (German Vogel)
before 900; Middle English foul, Old English fugol, fugel; cognate with Old Saxon fugal, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal (German Vogel)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To fowl
Collins
World English Dictionary
fowl (faʊl) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —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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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
of "domestic hen or rooster" (the main modern meaning) is first recorded 1580; in U.S. also extended to ducks and geese.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Example sentences
But it yet puzzles as whether it be fish, flesh or fowl.
Now you never go water-fowl hunting without seeing them.
They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.
But the problem is that the commission is neither fish nor fowl.
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