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  • foul-up
    foul-up
    noun
    a condition of difficulty or disorder brought on by inefficiency, stupidity, etc.
  • foul up
    foul up
    verb
    (tr) to bungle; mismanage
Synonyms

foul-up

American  
[foul-uhp] / ˈfaʊlˌʌp /

noun

Informal.

  1. a condition of difficulty or disorder brought on by inefficiency, stupidity, etc.

  2. failure of a mechanical part to operate correctly.

  3. a person who habitually makes mistakes; bungler.

foul up British  

verb

  1. (tr) to bungle; mismanage

  2. (tr) to make dirty; contaminate

  3. to be or cause to be blocked, choked, or entangled

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a state of confusion or muddle caused by bungling

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
foul up Idioms  

  1. Blunder or cause to blunder; botch, ruin. For example, He's fouled up this report, but I think we can fix it, or Our plans were fouled up by the bad weather. This expression is widely believed to have originated as a euphemism for fuck up. [Colloquial; c. 1940]

Etymology

Origin of foul-up

1950–55, noun use of verb phrase foul up

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.