foulness
noun
the state or quality of being foul.
foulness
American
[faul-nis]
/ ˈfaʊl nɪs /
noun
-
the state or quality of being foul.
The foulness of the accusation incensed us all.
-
something that is foul; foul matter; filth.
foulness
1
British
/ ˈfaʊlnɪs /
noun
-
the state or quality of being foul
-
obscenity; vulgarity
-
viciousness or inhumanity
-
foul matter; filth
Foulness
2
British
/ faʊlˈnɛs /
noun
Etymology
Origin of foulness
before 1150; Middle English; Old English fūlnes. See foul, -ness
Vocabulary lists containing foulness
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The foulness is in the very air they breathe; they might choke if they thought about it.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2022
My entirely inadequate advice will remain unchanged: Sit in the foulness of the roiling storm and do your work, whatever that may be, and triangulate by the light of whatever star feels eternal to you.
From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2022
You don’t need to see inside sealed legal filings to understand that the foulness wafted down from the top.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 8, 2020
And across China, the smog becomes a dominant topic on social media, with the population tracking the foulness of the air via mobile phone apps.
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2017
He was thinking that if only he could get the Bloodbottler to take one bite of the repulsive vegetable, the sheer foulness of its flavour would send him bellowing out of the cave.
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
The Broomway is a route across flat sands from the shore near Southend-on-Sea to Foulness Island and is home to a Ministry of Defence firing range.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2026
Foulness, for the most part, wins the day, and thus the beautiful paean, by Duncan and Banquo, to the home of the Macbeths—“a pleasant seat,” where “the air is delicate”—is expunged.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 7, 2015
In East Yorkshire there is a flood alert on the River Foulness and Market Weighton canal.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2012
For after the sailors could no longer come up the Thames, they came on to the Essex coast, to Harwich and Walton and Clacton, and afterwards to Foulness and Shoebury, to bring off the people.
From The War of the Worlds by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
A boat was seen passing towards Bradwell—indeed, it seems that you saw it, and that night a boat was seen sailing southwards down St. Peter's sands towards a ship that had anchored off Foulness Point.
From The Brethren by Henry Rider Haggard
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
