FOWL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fowl mean? 

• FOWL (noun)
  The noun FOWL has 2 senses:

1. a domesticated gallinaceous bird thought to be descended from the red jungle fowl

2. the flesh of a bird or fowl (wild or domestic) used as food

  Familiarity information: FOWL used as a noun is rare.

• FOWL (verb)
  The verb FOWL has 2 senses:

1. hunt fowl

2. hunt fowl in the forest

  Familiarity information: FOWL used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOWL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A domesticated gallinaceous bird thought to be descended from the red jungle fowl

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

domestic fowl; fowl; poultry

Hypernyms ("fowl" is a kind of...):

gallinacean; gallinaceous bird (heavy-bodied largely ground-feeding domestic or game birds)

Meronyms (parts of "fowl"):

poultry (flesh of chickens or turkeys or ducks or geese raised for food)

saddle (posterior part of the back of a domestic fowl)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fowl"):

Dorking (an English breed of large domestic fowl having five toes (the hind toe doubled))

Plymouth Rock (an American breed of domestic fowl)

Cornish; Cornish fowl (English breed of compact domestic fowl; raised primarily to crossbreed to produce roasters)

Rock Cornish (small plump hybrid developed by crossbreeding Plymouth Rock and Cornish fowl)

game fowl (any of several breeds reared for cockfighting)

cochin; cochin china (Asian breed of large fowl with dense plumage and feathered legs)

chicken; Gallus gallus (a domestic fowl bred for flesh or eggs; believed to have been developed from the red jungle fowl)

bantam (any of various small breeds of fowl)

Meleagris gallopavo; turkey (large gallinaceous bird with fan-shaped tail; widely domesticated for food)

guinea; guinea fowl; Numida meleagris (a west African bird having dark plumage mottled with white; native to Africa but raised for food in many parts of the world)

Holonyms ("fowl" is a member of...):

Gallus; genus Gallus (common domestic birds and related forms)

Derivation:

fowl (hunt fowl in the forest)

fowl (hunt fowl)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The flesh of a bird or fowl (wild or domestic) used as food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

bird; fowl

Hypernyms ("fowl" is a kind of...):

meat (the flesh of animals (including fishes and birds and snails) used as food)

Meronyms (parts of "fowl"):

wishbone; wishing bone (the furcula of a domestic fowl)

drumstick (the lower joint of the leg of a fowl)

second joint; thigh (the upper joint of the leg of a fowl)

wing (the wing of a fowl)

giblet; giblets (edible viscera of a fowl)

oyster (a small muscle on each side of the back of a fowl)

parson's nose; pope's nose (the tail of a dressed fowl)

dark meat (the flesh of the legs of fowl used as food)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fowl"):

poultry (flesh of chickens or turkeys or ducks or geese raised for food)

wildfowl (flesh of any of a number of wild game birds suitable for food)

Holonyms ("fowl" is a part of...):

bird (warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings)

• FOWL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they fowl    ... he / she / it fowls   
Past simple: fowled   
Past participle: fowled   
-ing form: fowling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hunt fowl

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "fowl" is one way to...):

hunt; hunt down; run; track down (pursue for food or sport (as of wild animals))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

In the summer they like to go out and fowl

Derivation:

fowl (a domesticated gallinaceous bird thought to be descended from the red jungle fowl)

fowler (someone who hunts wild birds for food)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hunt fowl in the forest

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "fowl" is one way to...):

hunt; hunt down; run; track down (pursue for food or sport (as of wild animals))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fowl"):

grouse (hunt grouse)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

In the summer they like to go out and fowl

Derivation:

fowl (a domesticated gallinaceous bird thought to be descended from the red jungle fowl)

 Context examples 

I suppose this unfortunate fowl was born and brought up in a cellar, said my aunt, and never took the air except on a hackney coach-stand.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Of their smaller fowl I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of my knife.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The fowls began to turn brown, and were nearly ready, but the guest had not yet arrived.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

D’you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled them ever since I was a nipper?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You know you only mean that in relation to human life, for of the flesh and the fowl and the fish you destroy as much as I or any other man.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A species of avian type C retroviruses (RETROVIRUSES TYPE C, AVIAN) causing anemia in fowl.

(Avian Myeloblastosis Virus, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

But then it was such a dead time of year, no wild-fowl, no game, and the Lady Frasers were not in the country.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The isle was uninhabited; my shipmates I had left behind, and nothing lived in front of me but dumb brutes and fowls.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She raised up a panel which was leaning against the wall, and showed a rude painting of a scraggy and angular fowl, with very long legs and a spotted body.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The common domestic fowl, Gallus gallus.

(Chicken, NCI Thesaurus)