fox - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Clipping of English Formosan, from Portuguese Formosa, with x as a placeholder.

fox

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-5 language code for Formosan languages.

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Old English fox

Middle English fox

English fox

From Middle English fox, from Old English fox (“fox”), from Proto-West Germanic *fuhs, from Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz (“fox”), from Proto-Indo-European *púḱsos (“the tailed one”), possibly from *puḱ- (“tail”).

Cognate with Scots fox (“fox”), North Frisian foos, fos (“fox”), Saterland Frisian Foaks (“fox”), West Frisian foks (“fox”), Dutch vos (“fox”), Low German vos (“fox”), German Fuchs (“fox”), Icelandic fóa (“fox”), Tocharian B päkā (“tail, chowrie”), Russian пух (pux, “down, fluff”), Sanskrit पुच्छ (púccha) (whence Torwali پوش (pūš, “fox”), Hindi पूंछ (pūñch, “tail”)).

Philosophical sense from the 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin. Military aviation sense from the pre-NATO military spelling alphabet where Fox represented F and was short for 'to fire'.[1]

fox (countable and uncountable, plural foxes or (nonstandard, dialectal) foxen)

  1. A small-to-medium-sized canine mammal, related to dogs and wolves, with a flattened skull, upright triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail, of the following groups:
    1. Any member of the genus Vulpes; a true fox.
      • 2019 June 6, “A gaggle, a confusion and a conspiracy - bizarre animal collective group names”, in BBC‎[3]:
        A group of foxes is called a skulk.
      1. (in particular) The red fox, a small carnivore (Vulpes vulpes) with red or silver fur.
        Hyponyms: tod (“male fox”), vixen (“female fox”), kit (“young fox”)
        The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
        * 15th century, The Fox, verse 1:
        The fox went out on a chase one night, / he prayed to the Moon to give him light, / for he had many a mile to go that night / before he reached the town-o, town-o, town-o. / He had many a mile to go that night / before he reached the town-o.
        * 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The First Gun”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 1:
        They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
    2. Other canines that resemble true foxes, of the genera Cerdocyon, Lycalopex, Otocyon, and Urocyon.
      Hypernym: canid
  2. (uncountable) The fur of a fox.
  3. A fox terrier.
  4. (Australia) A flying fox.
    • 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 154:
      Their screeches heralded excited talk from the hurrying troops, for flying fox is a delicacy. The densely-foliaged trees hedged a sombre pool, deep and quiet. As the slain foxes dropped into the water the snouts of river crocodiles popped up and devoured them.
  5. The gemmeous dragonet, a fish, Callionymus lyra, so called from its yellow color.
  6. (figurative) A cunning person.
  7. (slang, figurative) A physically attractive person, typically a woman. [from 1960s][2]
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:beautiful person, Thesaurus:beautiful man, Thesaurus:beautiful woman
    Hypernym: person
    Hyponyms: superfox, silver vixen, silver fox
    • 1993, Laura Antoniou, The Marketplace, page 90:
      And Jerry was cute, you know, I liked him, but Frank was a total fox. And he was rougher than Jerry, you know, not so cultured.
    • 2012, Adele Parks, Still Thinking of You:
      It wasn't just that Jayne was a fox – although, fuck, was she ever a fox. That arse, those tits, those lips. They could have a really good time together.
  8. (slang, figurative) A person with reddish brown hair, typically a woman.
  9. (nautical) A small strand of rope made by twisting several rope-yarns together. Used for seizings, mats, sennits, and gaskets.
  10. (mechanics) A wedge driven into the split end of a bolt to tighten it.
  11. A hidden radio transmitter, finding which is the goal of radiosport.
  1. (cartomancy) The fourteenth Lenormand card.
  2. (obsolete) A sword; so called from the stamp of a fox on the blade, or perhaps of a wolf taken for a fox.
  1. (military, aviation) Air-to-air weapon launched.[3]
  2. (chiefly philosophy) Someone who fuses many different influences and concepts in their philosophy or worldview.
    Antonym: hedgehog

Vulpes

any of the species in the tribe Vulpini

fox fur

cunning person

attractive woman

fox (third-person singular simple present foxes, present participle foxing, simple past and past participle foxed)

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  1. (transitive) To trick, fool or outwit (someone) by cunning or ingenuity.
    • 1680, Arthur Warwick, Spare-Minutes, or Resolved Meditations and Remediated Resolutions‎[4]:
      I see a number of gallants every where, whoſe incomes come in yearely by ſet numbers, but runne out daily, ſans number. […] And when I ſee them often foxed, me thinke the Proverbe ſutes thoſe ſutes, what is the fox but his caſe? I ſhould thinke them to be Eutrapelus his enemies, whom he cloathed richly to make them ſpend freely, and grow deboſhed.
  2. (transitive) To confuse or baffle (someone).
    This crossword puzzle has completely foxed me.
  3. (intransitive) To act slyly or craftily. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  4. (transitive, dated) To cheat or rob.
    • Quoted in 2000, John Lewes, Jock Lewes: Co-founder of the SAS (page 132)
      Have you any news of Miriam? As I have had no reply to my delicately worded epistle, I can only presume that you foxed me with the wrong address, and that you are yourself already engaged to be married to her.
  5. (intransitive) To discolour paper. Fox marks are spots on paper caused by humidity. (See foxing.)
    The pages of the book show distinct foxing.
  6. (transitive) To make sour, as beer, by causing it to ferment.
  7. (intransitive) To turn sour; said of beer, etc., when it sours in fermenting.
  8. (transitive) To intoxicate; to stupefy with drink.
  9. (transitive) To repair (boots) with new front upper leather, or to piece the upper fronts of.

to confuse

to act slyly

  1. ^ Paul Dickson (1994), War slang‎[1], page 271
  2. ^ “fox”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  3. ^ “BREVITY Multiservice Brevity Codes”, in discover.dtic.mil‎[2], Defense Technical Information Center, 1 February 2002, archived from the original on 17 November 2015

Early monophthongized variant of faux.

fōx f (genitive fōcis); third declension

  1. alternative form of faux (“throat; gorge”)

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

From Old English fox, from Proto-West Germanic *fuhs, from Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz.

fox (plural foxes or **fox)

  1. A fox or its fur.
  2. A liar or schemer.

From Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz. Cognate with Old Frisian *foks, Old Saxon fohs, Old Dutch fus, Old High German fuhs.

fox m

  1. fox
    • late 10th century, Ælfric, Lives of Saints, quoting Matthew 8:20
      Foxas habbaþ holu and fugelas habbaþ nest, and iċ næbbe wununge hwider iċ mīn heafod ahyldan mæġe.
      Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but I have no dwelling where I can rest my head.

Strong _a_-stem:

fox

  1. nominative and oblique masculine singular of fol

Borrowed from French fox.

fox m (plural focși)

  1. fox terrier