fowl

[foul] /faʊl/

noun, plural fowls (especially collectively) fowl.

the domestic or barnyard hen or rooster; chicken.

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.

Origin

before 900; Middle English foul, Old English fugol, fugel; cognate with Old Saxon fugal, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal (German Vogel)

Can be confused

foul, fowl.

Examples from the web for fowl

But the problem is that the commission is neither fish nor fowl.
The geese's flight muscles also have more mitochondria-energy-producing structures inside cells-than their fellow fowl.
Perhaps a focusing laser in space to slow down their orbits, but then, the threat of fowl play.
They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.
Fondling the doll translates into touching the real fowl.
Here is a wine with the flavor and acidity to match almost any strongly flavored fowl.
But it yet puzzles as whether it be fish, flesh or fowl.
Pork and veal also make excellent meatballs, or any combination of these meats and fowl.
Last, their meat appears to have less fat than that of feathered fowl.
The author's fowl defy the blogosphere and stage a comeback.

British Dictionary definitions for fowl

fowl

/faʊl/

noun

See domestic fowl

any other bird, esp any gallinaceous bird, that is used as food or hunted as game See also waterfowl, wildfowl

the flesh or meat of fowl, esp of chicken

an archaic word for any bird

verb

(intransitive) to hunt or snare wildfowl

Word Origin

Old English fugol; related to Old Frisian fugel, Old Norse fogl, Gothic fugls, Old High German fogal

Word Origin and History for fowl

Old English fugel "bird," representing the general Germanic word for them, from Proto-Germanic *foglaz (cf. Old Frisian fugel, Old Norse fugl, Middle Dutch voghel, Dutch vogel, German vogel, Gothic fugls), probably by dissimilation from *flug-la-, literally "flyer," from the same root as Old English fleogan, modern fly (v.1).

Originally "bird;" narrower sense of "domestic hen or rooster" (the main modern meaning) is first recorded 1570s; in U.S. also extended to ducks and geese. As a verb, Old English fuglian "to catch birds." Related: Fowled; fowling.

Idioms and Phrases with fowl

fowl

see: neither fish nor fowl