fovilla (fovila)

[NL., dim., irreg. Bethink ye, Sirs, What were the fowage and the subsidies When bread was but four mites that's now a groat? Sir H. Taylor , Ph. van Artevelde, I., ii. 6. fowert, a . and n. See four. fowk, n. A dialectal form of folk . fowll (foul), n. [Early mod. E. also foul , foule : fowl , foul , fowel , fuwel , fuel , fuzel , fugel , fugol , fugel = OS. fugal , fugl = OFries. fugel = D. vogel = MLG. vogel , voggel , vagel = OHG. fogal , MHG. vogel , G. vogel = Icel. fugl , fogl Sw. fågel = Dan. fugl = Goth. fugls , a fowl, a bird. It is po ible that the orig. form was flugl , AS. * flugol , etc., flugon ), fly; cf. G. geflügel , fowl col- lectively ( fliegen = E. fly ), with equiv. MHG. gevügele. Cf. fugleman, G. flügelmann.] 1. A bird: generally unchanged in the plural when used in a collective or generic sense. This launde that I of speke was so feire and plesaunt to be-holde for the swote sauours, that the i hadde no will to meve thens and for the swete songe of the fowles . Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 274. In Huntlee bannkes es mery to bee, Whare fowles synges bot he nyght and daye. Thomas of Er eldoune (Child's Ballads, I. 107). This river also, as the two former, is replenished with fish and foule . Capt. John Smith , Works, I. 117. Specifically-2. Abarn-yard cock or hen; also, a domestic duck or turkey; in the plural, poultry. [This is now the usual meaning of the word when used without qualification, bird being the general term for а feathered biped.] fowl Then waiter leans over, To take off a cover From fowls , which all beg of, A wing or a leg of. Hood , A Public Dinner. My mother went about inside the house, or among the maids and fowls. But the fowls would take no notice of it, except to cluck for barley. R. D. Black more , Lorna Doone, vi. Barn-yard, dunghill, etc., fowl. See the qualifying words. Fowl-gra , the Poa serotina , a meadow-gra of Europe and North America. Also called fowl meadow gra . Frizzled fowl. See frizzle . - Wild fowl, non domesticated birds, especially game-birds, or such as are hunted for food. fowl1 (foul), v. [ In these every man may hunt, and fowl , and fish. Jer. Taylor , Works (ed. 1835), I. 904. You sit at their tables you sleep under their roof-tree -you fish, hunt, and fowl with them. R. Choate, Addre es, p. 9. II. trans. To hunt wild fowl over or in; catch or kill wild fowl in. They hunt all grounds, and draw all seas, Fowl every brook and bush, to please Their wanton taste. B. Jonson, Cat i line, i. 1. fowl2t, a. An obsolete variant of foull. fowl-cholera (foul'kole-rä), n. Same as chick en-cholera. See cholera, 3.