fowl

CEFRB2

/faʊl/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A bird kept for food, especially a chicken or turkey.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    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.

Examples

  • It's hard to say because it's neither fish nor fowl.

  • We took our guns and went fowling.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
1
Synonyms
3

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. To hunt fowl.

  2. Any bird.

More examples

In context

  • Neither fish nor fowl.

  • This is a fowl.

  • Paradise Lost, John Milton Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view / Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause / Mov'd our Grand Parents in that happy State / Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off / From their Creator, and transgress his...

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The farmer raised blank for their eggs and meat.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk fugl. Doublet of voël. More at fly.