foxy
Americanadjective
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foxier,
comparative
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foxiest
superlative
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foxlike; cunning or crafty; slyly clever.
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yellowish or reddish brown, as of the color of the common red fox.
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Slang.
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sexually appealing; attractive.
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stylish; modish.
a foxy outfit.
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exciting and appealing, as a place, entertainment, or the like.
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discolored or foxed.
pages of a book that had become foxy.
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(of a wine) having the pronounced flavor natural to native American grape varieties, as that of fox grapes or of Concord or Catawba grapes.
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(especially of a painting) having excessively warm tones; containing too much red.
adjective
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of or resembling a fox, esp in craftiness
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smelling strongly like a fox
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of a reddish-brown colour
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(of paper, wood, etc) spotted, esp by mildew
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(of wine) having the flavour of fox grapes
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(of oats) having a musty smell as a result of getting wet, fermenting, and drying out
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slang sexy; sexually attractive
Usage
What does foxy mean? Foxy is most commonly used as a slang word for sexy or attractive, as in I want to look really foxy for my reunion. Because it can sound a bit silly or old-fashioned, it’s sometimes used in a way that’s intended to be somewhat ironic or humorous (though this is not always the case.)Foxy can also be used to describe someone or something as clever or crafty, as in He’s a foxy competitor—don’t underestimate him. However, the expression clever as a fox is more commonly used to mean the same thing. Much less commonly, foxy can describe something as being a reddish-brown color that resembles the fur of a red fox, as in I like that foxy orange one. Example: You look positively foxy—what’s the occasion?
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of foxy
1520–30; 1960–65 foxy for def. 3; fox + -y 1
Explanation
People who are foxy are either sneaky or good looking. If you say someone is foxy, unless she has a long skinny nose and is stealing your eggs, you probably mean she’s hot. If your dog is foxy, he might resemble a pointy-nosed fox, or he may be a wily beggar, convincing people with his sad eyes that he hasn't eaten for days. Foxy is also an informal term for an attractive person. This meaning comes from the Middle Ages, when a writer complained of women’s clothes that were so tight they had to stuff fox tails down the back of their skirts to hide their behinds. That is not weird at all.
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:
Yet while the basic gesture of translation is reverent, sometimes a foxy irreverence yields pleasing results.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
The show had already done a foxy job of evoking the thought, but it can’t resist returning to the passage with a highlighter.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 24, 2019
Eventually, Tetlock and his collaborator, Barbara Mellers, assembled a team of foxy volunteers, drawn from the general public, to compete in a forecasting tournament.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2019
Others come in one of the nearly infinite shades of brown that tax the vocabulary of avian taxonomists: rufous, fulvous, ferruginous, bran-coloured, foxy.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2018
He was a small undersized fellow with a foxy, waxed moustache, who had seen twelve years’ service and was in civil life a postman.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
In the 90s, Kelly Preston’s roles were more interesting and she found that could play darker, funnier, foxier parts.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 13, 2020
Had Mr. Hastings lived to see this book into print, he surely would have found a foxier ending.
From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2014
The Silver Fox never looked foxier, needlepoint in her experienced hands.
From Time Magazine Archive
Foxes in Russian fables are foxier than any imagined by La Fontaine.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Sultan was captivated by his converse and, regarding him as a friend, asked, "What meaning is there in the saw Shurayh is foxier than the fox'?"
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
But the foxiest charmer is Tom Stoppard, who has one character say: "It may be nonsense, but at least it's clever nonsense."
From Time Magazine Archive
To this last and most troublous question of all, two of the oldest and foxiest independent moviemakers last week gave an answer that may give other independents an idea.
From Time Magazine Archive
They also knew that Kentucky's foxiest and most renowned horseman was hell-bent on another victorious drink out of the old Derby cup.
From Time Magazine Archive
But Boris, long known as the foxiest monarch in Europe, saw the time had come to shift from a pro-German policy.
From Time Magazine Archive
He's the foxiest thing—he just worked it all out and kept grinning so mean—but I fooled him, though.
From The Lookout Man by B. M. Bower
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.
