befoul

== English == === Etymology === From be- +‎ foul. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /bɪˈfaʊl/ Rhymes: -aʊl === Verb === befoul (third-person singular simple present befouls, present participle befouling, simple past and past participle befouled) (literally) To make foul; to soil; to contaminate, pollute. 1897, Robert Gwynneddon Davies (translator), The Sleeping Bard by Ellis Wynne, London: Simplkon, Marshall & Co., Part I,[1] At last, what with a round of blasphemy, and the whole crowd with clay pistols belching smoke and fire and slander of their neighbours, and the floor already befouled with dregs and spittle, I feared lest viler deeds should happen, and craved to depart. 1997, Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid, “Echo and Narcissus” in Paul Keegan (ed.), Ted Hughes: Collected Poems, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, p. 919,[3] There was a pool of perfect water. […] No cattle Had slobbered their muzzles in it And befouled it. (specifically) To defecate on, to soil with excrement. (figuratively) To stain or mar (e.g., with infamy or disgrace). (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:) To entangle or run against so as to impede motion. ==== Synonyms ==== (stain or mar): besmirch, sully, tarnish ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== afoul ==== Translations ====