Definition of FOWL

fowl

Plural: fowl, fowls

Noun

  • a domesticated gallinaceous bird thought to be descended from the red jungle fowl
  • the flesh of a bird or fowl (wild or domestic) used as food
  • A bird hunted or kept for food, grouped into landfowl (order Galliformes), also called gamefowl, and waterfowl (order Anseriformes: ducks, geese, swans, etc.), which together form the clade Galloanserae.
  • Any bird.

Verb

Verb Forms: fowled, fowling, fowls

  • To hunt or catch birds, especially wild birds.
  • hunt fowl
  • hunt fowl in the forest
  • To hunt fowl.

Adj

  • foul

Examples

  • He hoped to ’fowl’ a bingo word from his tiles, but instead had to make a defensive play.
  • We took our guns and went fowling.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English foul, foghel, fowel, fowele, from Old English fugol (“bird”), from Proto-West Germanic *fugl, from Proto-Germanic *fuglaz, dissimilated variant of *fluglaz (compare Old English flugol ‘fleeing’, Mercian fluglas heofun ‘birds of the air’), from *fleuganą (“to fly”). Cognate with West Frisian fûgel, Low German Vagel, Dutch vogel, German Vogel, Swedish fågel, Danish and Norwegian fugl. Doublet of voël. More at fly.

Synonyms

bird, domestic fowl, poultry, fowl, gamefowl, wildfowl

Scrabble Score: 10

fowl: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
fowl: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
fowl: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 11

fowl: valid Words With Friends Word