Dictionary: FOS'TER-DAM – FOUL

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FOS'TER-DAM, n.

A nurse; one that performs the office of a mother by giving food to a child. Dryden.

FOS'TER-EARTH, n.

Earth by which a plant is nourished, though not its native soil. Philips.

FOS'TER-ED, pp.

Nourished; cherished; promoted.

FOS'TER-ER, n.

A nurse; one that feeds and nourishes in the place of parents. Davies.

FOS'TER-FATH'ER, n.

One who takes the place of a father in feeding and educating a child. Bacon.

FOS'TER-ING, a.

That cherishes and encourages.

FOS'TER-ING, n.

  1. The act of nursing, nourishing, and cherishing.
  2. Nourishment. Chaucer.

FOS'TER-ING, ppr.

Nursing; cherishing; bringing up.

FOS'TER-LING, n.

A foster-child. B. Jonson.

FOS'TER-MENT, n.

Food; nourishment. [Not used.]

FOS'TER-MOTH'ER, n.

A nurse.

FOS'TER-NURSE, n.

A nurse. [Tautological.]

FOS'TER-SIS'TER, n.

A female nursed by the same person. Swift.

FOS'TER-SON, n.

One fed and educated like a son, though not a son by birth. Dryden.

FOS'TRESS, n.

A female who feeds and cherishes; a nurse. B. Jonson.

FOTH'ER, n. [G. fuder, a tun or load; D. voeder; Sax. fother, food, fodder, and a mass of lead, from the sense of stuffing, crowding. See Food.]

A weight of lead consisting eight pigs, and every pig twenty one stone and a half. But the fother is of different weights. With the plumbers in London it is nineteen hundred and a half, and at the mines it is twenty-two hundred and a half. Encyc.

FOTH'ER, v.t. [from stuffing. See the preceding word.]

To endeavor to stop a leak in the bottom of a ship, while afloat, by letting down a sail by the corners, and putting chopped yarn, oakum, wool, cotton, &c. between it and the ship's sides. These substances are sometimes sucked into the ship's cracks and the leak stopped. Mar. Dict.

FOTH'ER-ED, pp.

Stopped, as a leak in the bottom of a ship.

FOTH'ER-ING, n.

The operation of stopping leaks in a ship, as above.

FOTH'ER-ING, ppr.

Stopping leaks, as above.

FOU'GADE, n. [Fr. fougade; Sp. fogada; from L. focus.]

In the art of war, a little mine, in the form of a well, 8 to 10 feet wide, and 10 to 12 feet deep, dug under some work, fortification or post, charged with sacks of powder and covered with stones or earth, for destroying the works by explosion. Encyc.

FOUGHT, v. [pret. and pp. of fight; pron. faut. See Fight.]

FOUGHT'EN, v. [for Fought. Obs.]

FOUL, a. [Sax. ful, faul; D. vuil; G. faul; Dan. fæl. In Ch. with a prefix נבל nabail, to defile. The Syr. with a different prefix, ܛܦܠ tafel, to defile. It coincides in elements with full, and probably the primary sense of both is to put or thrown on, or to stuff, to crowd. See the signification of the word in seaman's language.]

  1. Covered with or containing extraneous matter which is injurious, noxious or offensive; filthy; dirty; not clean; as, a foul cloth; foul hands; a foul chimney. My face is foul with weeping. Job xvi.
  2. Turbid; thick; muddy; as foul water; a foul stream.
  3. Impure; polluted; as, a foul mouth. Shak.
  4. Impure; scurrilous; obscene or profane; as, foul words; foul language.
  5. Cloudy and stormy; rainy or tempestuous; as foul weather.
  6. Impure; defiling; as, a foul disease.
  7. Wicked; detestable; abominable; as, a foul deed; a foul spirit. Babylon – the hold of every foul spirit. Rev. xviii.
  8. Unfair; not honest; not lawful or according to established rules or customs; as foul play.
  9. Hateful; ugly; loathsome. Hast thou forgot / The foul witch Cycorax? Shak.
  10. Disgraceful; shameful; as, a foul defeat. Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? Milton.
  11. Coarse; gross. They are all for rank and foul feeding. Felton.
  12. Full of gross humors or impurities. You perceive the body of our kingdom / How foul it is. Shak.
  13. Full of weeds; as, the garden is very foul.
  14. Among seamen, entangled; hindered from motion; opposed to clear; as, a rope is foul.
  15. Covered with weeds or barnacles; as, the ship has a foul bottom.
  16. Not fair; contrary; as, a foul wind.
  17. Not favorable or safe; dangerous; as, a foul road or bay. To fall foul, is to rush on with haste, rough force and unseasonable violence. #2. To run against; as, the ship fell foul of her consort. [These latter phrases show that this word is allied to the Fr. fouler, Eng. full, the sense of which is to press.]

FOUL, v.t. [Sax. fulian, gefylan.]

To make filthy; to defile; to daub; to dirty; to bemire; to soil; as, to foul the clothes; to foul the face or hands. Ezek. xxxiv. 18.