fox

fox

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

English Wikipedia has an article on:

fox

Wikipedia

A red fox (Vulpes vulpes)

An arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus)

A gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus)

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”)).

In the philosophical sense, from the 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɒks/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɑks/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒks

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

2. A small-to-medium-sized canine mammal 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.
      2. (in particular) The red fox, a small carnivore (Vulpes vulpes), related to dogs and wolves, with red or silver fur.

         Hypernym: canid

         Hyponyms: tod (“male fox”), vixen (“female fox”), kit (“young fox”)

         The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

         • 15^th 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 J, “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.

         • 1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter XXVIII, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 164:

           It was earliest morning, when even small trees cast long shadows and scarlet foxes trot denward through the dew like flecks of fire.

   2. Other canines that resemble true foxes, of the genera Cerdocyon, Lycalopex, Otocyon, and Urocyon.
3. (uncountable) The fur of a fox.
4. A fox terrier.
5. The gemmeous dragonet, a fish, Callionymus lyra, so called from its yellow color.
6. (figurative) A cunning person.
   • 1922, E R[ücker] Eddison, chapter 24, in The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape , for thee, false friend, subtle fox, unfaithful servant, this long time am I grown weary of thee slinking up and down my palace devising darkly things I know not: thou, that art nought akin to Witchland, but an outlander, a Goblin exile, a serpent warmed in my bosom to my hurt. pages As for thee, false friend, subtle fox, unfaithful servant, this long time am I grown weary of thee slinking up and down my palace devising darkly things I know not: thou, that art nought akin to Witchland, but an outlander, a Goblin exile, a serpent warmed in my bosom to my hurt.:
8. (slang, figurative) A physically attractive person, typically a woman.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:beautiful person, Thesaurus:beautiful man, Thesaurus:beautiful woman

   • 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.

9. (slang, figurative) A person with reddish brown hair, typically a woman.
10. (nautical) A small strand of rope made by twisting several rope-yarns together. Used for seizings, mats, sennits, and gaskets.
11. (mechanics) A wedge driven into the split end of a bolt to tighten it.
12. A hidden radio transmitter, finding which is the goal of radiosport.
    • 2006, H. Ward Silver, The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual:

      Locating a hidden transmitter (the fox) has been a popular ham activity for many years.

13. (cartomancy) The fourteenth Lenormand card.
14. (obsolete) A sword; so called from the stamp of a fox on the blade, or perhaps of a wolf taken for a fox.
    • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      Thou diest on point of fox.

15. (military, aviation) Air-to-air weapon launched.^[1]
    • 2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: The Ark:

      Got a lock! Fox, Fox!

16. (chiefly philosophy) Someone who fuses many different influences and concepts in their philosophy or worldview.

    Antonym: hedgehog

    • 1970, The Month:

      Austin was patiently and painstakingly concerned with truth within limitations. He was a hedgehog, not a fox.

    • 1992, J. E. Tiles, Jim E. Tiles, John Dewey, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 220:

      Dewey was a hedgehog rather than a fox; he spent his life trying to articulate and restate a single vision, and in the writings of his third decade he already exhibits the tension I have claimed to find in the later writings.

• → Cheyenne: vóhkéso
• → Japanese: フォックス (fokkusu)
• → Maori: pōkiha

• 🦊

• canids: coyote · dog · fox · jackal · wolf ^[edit]
• Reynard
• kitsune
• cub

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

1. (transitive) To trick, fool or outwit (someone) by cunning or ingenuity.
2. (transitive) To confuse or baffle (someone).

   This crossword puzzle has completely foxed me.

3. (intransitive) To act slyly or craftily.
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.
   • 1661 October 9 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “September 29th, 1661 (Lord’s Day)”, in Henry B Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys , volume II, London: George Bell & Sons ; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC:

     I drank […] so much wine that I was almost foxed.

9. (transitive) To repair (boots) with new front upper leather, or to piece the upper fronts of.

• Fox in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• Fox in the 1921 edition of Collier's Encyclopedia.

• Oxf.

Early monophthongized variant of faux.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key):
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key):

fōx f (genitive fōcis); third declension

1. Alternative form of faux (“throat, gorge”)

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

• Adams, J. N. (2013) Social Variation and the Latin Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 81
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “faux”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 242

• vox, wox

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

• IPA^(key): /fɔks/
• Rhymes: -ɔks

fox (plural foxes or fox)

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

• English: fox
• Scots: fox
• Yola: voxe, vox

• “fox, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

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

• IPA^(key): /foks/

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:

• foxhol
• fyxen

• Middle English: fox, vox, wox
  • English: fox
  • Scots: fox
  • Yola: voxe, vox

• fols, fous

fox

1. nominative and oblique masculine singular of fol

Borrowed from French fox.

fox m (plural focși)

1. fox terrier