defoul

• defoyle (14th - 16th centuries)
• defoil

Inherited from Middle English defoulen, from Old French defouler.

• (UK) IPA^(key): [dɪˈfaʊɫ]
• Rhymes: -aʊl

defoul (third-person singular simple present defouls, present participle defouling, simple past and past participle defouled)

1. (obsolete) To trample underfoot.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xiiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:

     And so whanne they had horsed the kynges ageyne they drewe hem al xj kynges to gyder and said they wold be reuenged of the dommage that they had taken that day / The meane whyle cam in syr Ector with an egyr countenaunce / and found Vlfyus and Brastias on foote in grete perylle of deth that were fowle defoyled vnder horsfeet

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (obsolete) To physically crush or break.
   • 1922, Charles Sylvester, Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5:

     Then Sir Galahad began to break spears marvelously, that all men had wonder of him; for he there surmounted all other knights, for within a while he had defouled many good knights of the Table Round save twain, that was Sir Launcelot and Sir Percivale.

3. (obsolete) To oppress, keep down.
4. (obsolete) To defile the chastity of; to debauch, to rape.

   Synonyms: abuse, ravish, violate; see also Thesaurus:rape

• fouled

Either borrowed from Middle French defoul or a back-formation from defoulen.

• defoule, dyffoule
• defowle (Northern)

• IPA^(key): /dɛˈfuːl/, /dɛːˈfuːl/

defoul (uncountable)

1. Pollution, dirt, filth:
   1. (figuratively) Immorality; moral harm.
2. A harm, injury or damage:
   1. Mistreatment, indignity.
3. Humility, self-effacement.

• “dēfǒul(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “defoul, defoil, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “defoule, defowle, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.

defoul

1. (Late Middle English) alternative form of defoulen