fowl
[foul]
noun, plural fowls, (especially collectively) fowl.
the domestic or barnyard hen or rooster; chicken.Compare domestic fowl.
any of several other, usually gallinaceous, birds that are barnyard, domesticated, or wild, as the duck, turkey, or pheasant.
(in market and household use) a full-grown domestic fowl for food purposes, as distinguished from a chicken or young fowl.
the flesh or meat of a domestic fowl.
any bird (used chiefly in combination): waterfowl; wildfowl.
verb (used without object)
to hunt or take wildfowl.
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RELATED WORDS
Origin of fowl
before 900; Middle English foul, Old English fugol, fugel; cognate with Old Saxon fugal, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal (German Vogel)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for fowl
Contemporary Examples of fowl
It is a multimillion-dollar business in which roughly 15 million fowl die a year.
Like all fowl, turkeys tend to go quiet when held upside down.
Both include oysters, crawfish, crab, shrimp, and fish from the Gulf of Mexico, and pork, fowl, and beef.
Historical Examples of fowl
The basket contained a fowl and some eggs which she had just bought at a great price.
The Rock of ChickamaugaJoseph A. Altsheler
Even the fowl at Horn o' the Moon are not of the ordinary sort.
Tiverton TalesAlice Brown
Pass through a sieve and use for masking meat, fowl, fish, &c.
The Cook's Decameron: A Study in Taste:Mrs. W. G. Waters
At times she was even able to carry off a rabbit or a fowl given her by Desiree.
Abbe Mouret's TransgressionEmile Zola
Fill the fowl with the stuffing, placing in the yolks and truffles.
The Skilful CookMary Harrison
fowl
noun
verb
Word Origin for fowl
Old English fugol; related to Old Frisian fugel, Old Norse fogl, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal
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
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
fowl
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.