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foulness

[foul-nis]
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noun
  1. the state or quality of being foul: The foulness of the accusation incensed us all.
  2. something that is foul; foul matter; filth.
  3. wickedness.
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Origin of foulness

before 1150; Middle English; Old English fūlnes. See foul, -ness
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

dirtiness, coarseness, indecency, profanity, vulgarity, lewdness, filthiness, bawdiness, filth, dirt, squalor, uncleanness, grubbiness, uncleanliness, vulgarness

Examples from the Web for foulness

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • But not even that cloak could they cast upon their foulness.

    Captain Blood

    Rafael Sabatini

  • It has shut out from me all the foulness of that past; and yet I am unworthy.

    The Strolling Saint

    Raphael Sabatini

  • And doing it just as a hog wallows in foulness—for the love of it.

    The Lion's Skin

    Rafael Sabatini

  • Tell them of the foulness, of the cruelty, of the senselessness of it all.

  • "Yet they say this has to be done;" and he bowed under the weight of the foulness of this girl.

    En Route

    J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans

British Dictionary definitions for foulness

foulness

noun
  1. the state or quality of being foul
  2. obscenity; vulgarity
  3. viciousness or inhumanity
  4. foul matter; filth
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Foulness

noun
  1. a flat marshy island in SE England, in Essex north of the Thames estuary
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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

Word Origin and History for foulness

n.

Old English fulness "foulness, filthy smell;" see foul (adj.) + -ness.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper