Foul vs Degenerate - What's the difference?

Foul is a related term of degenerate.

As nouns the difference between foul and degenerate

is that foul is foul (a breach of the rules of a game) while degenerate is one is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature.

As an adjective degenerate is

(of qualities) having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.

As a verb degenerate is

to lose good or desirable qualities.

foul

English

(Webster 1913)

Etymology 1

From (etyl), from (etyl) . More at (l).

Adjective

(er)

Covered with, or containing unclean matter; polluted; nasty; defiled

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.}}

obscene or profane; abusive.

Hateful; detestable; unpleasant

* Milton

Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?

Loathsome; disgusting; as, a foul disease.

(obsolete) Ugly; homely; poor.

* Shakespeare

Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares.

Not favorable; unpropitious; not fair or advantageous; as, a foul wind; a foul road; cloudy or rainy; stormy; not fair; -- said of the weather, sky, etc.

* Shakespeare

So foul a sky clears not without a storm.

Not conforming to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.; unfair; dishonest; dishonorable; cheating.

(nautical) Having freedom of motion interfered with by collision or entanglement; entangled; - opposed to clear; as, a rope or cable may get foul while paying it out.

(baseball) Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.

Usage notes

* Nouns to which "foul" is often applied: play, ball, language, breath, smell, odor, water, weather, deed.

Synonyms

* shameful; odious; wretched

Derived terms

* afoul * befoul * fall foul * nonfoul * nonfouling

Etymology 2

From (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)

To make dirty.

to foul the face or hands with mire

She's fouled her diaper.

To besmirch.

He's fouled his reputation.

To clog or obstruct.

The hair has fouled the drain.

(nautical) To entangle.

The kelp has fouled the prop.

(basketball) To make contact with an opposing player in order to gain advantage.

Smith fouled him hard.

(baseball) To hit outside of the baselines.

Jones fouled the ball off the facing of the upper deck.

To become clogged.

''The drain fouled .

To become entangled.

The prop fouled on the kelp.

(basketball) To commit a foul.

Smith fouled within the first minute of the quarter.

(baseball) To hit a ball outside of the baselines.

Jones fouled for strike one.

Noun

(en noun)

(sports) A breach of the rules of a game, especially one involving inappropriate contact with an opposing player in order to gain an advantage; as, for example, foot-tripping in soccer, or contact of any kind in basketball.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=December 10 , author=Arindam Rej , title=Norwich 4 - 2 Newcastle , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.
Gosling's plight worsened when he was soon shown a red card for a foul on Martin.}}

(bowling) A (usually accidental) contact between a bowler and the lane before the bowler has released the ball.

(baseball) A foul ball, a ball which has been hit outside of the base lines.

Jones hit a foul up over the screen.

External links

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degenerate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

(of qualities) Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.

* Shakespeare

faint-hearted and degenerate king

* Jonathan Swift

degenerate from their ancient blood

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03

, author= , title=The Smallest Cell , volume=101, issue=2, page=83 , magazine= citation , passage=It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.}}

(of a human or system) Having lost good or desirable qualities.

(of an encoding or function) Having multiple domain elements correspond to one element of the range.

''The genetic code is degenerate because a single amino acid can be coded by one of several codons.

(mathematics) A degenerate case is a limiting case in which a class of object changes its nature so as to belong to another, usually simpler, class.

(physics) Having the same quantum energy level.

Derived terms

* (physics) degenerate matter

Noun

(en noun)

One is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature.

You are a degenerate , boy. You're a disgrace to your ancestors.

Verb

(degenerat)

To lose good or desirable qualities.

His condition continued to degenerate even after admission to hospital.

* 1870 , Shirley Hibberd, Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste (page 170)

Another bird quickly learned to imitate the song of a canary that was mated with it, but as the parrakeet improved in the performance the canary degenerated , and came at last to mingle the other bird's harsh chitterings with its own proper music.

To cause to lose good or desirable qualities.

Derived terms

* degeneration

External links

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