Definition for FOUL'NESS

FOUL'NESS, n.

  1. The quality of being foul or filthy; filthiness; defilement.
  2. The quality or state of containing or being covered with any thing extraneous which is noxious or offensive; as, the foulness of a cellar, or of a well; the foulness of a musket; the foulness of a ship's bottom.
  3. Pollution; impurity. There is not so chaste a nation as this, nor so free from all pollution or foulness. Bacon.
  4. Hatefulness; atrociousness; as the foulness of a deed.
  5. Ugliness; deformity. The foulness of th' infernal form to hide. Dryden.
  6. Unfairness; dishonesty; want of candor. Piety is opposed to hypocrisy and insincerity, and all falseness or foulness of intentions. Hammond.

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