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befoul

[bih-foul] / bɪˈfaʊl /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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At long last, the U.S. is thinking beyond the tailpipe to examine hidden ways that cars befoul the planet.

From Slate Nov. 9, 2023

He has persevered through torrential downpours, droughts and, most vexingly, increasingly elaborate halftime shows that befoul his beloved turf.

From Seattle Times Feb. 12, 2023

Cow pies befoul apple carts, a teddy bear and a man trying to save a young girl.

From Washington Times Feb. 23, 2022

The aftereffects of this campaign may befoul our civic life for some time to come.

From The New Yorker Oct. 23, 2016

But then, Samir said that the ghosts would never risk stealing our breath because Rasseem was with us, and his breath could befoul the afterlife.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

And when drilling goes bad, it befouls the environment and the greater economy.

From Washington Post Oct. 7, 2021

For all the burlesque that befouls our politics, the quadrennial ritual on January 20 is when we are humbled by the reminder of our own solemn charge.

From National Geographic Jan. 20, 2021

Perhaps most distressing about SantaCon is its size and the way that it shuts down and befouls dozens of blocks.

From New York Times Dec. 13, 2013

Author and Nantucket Home Owner David Halberstam says that the plan represents "an ecological awakening, a sense of the fragility of the islands, a recognition that what befouls one area befouls all areas."

From Time Magazine Archive

Here as the waters swept under the stony arches of the bridges, old women tucked up their petticoats and fished for the richness with which a city befouls its river.

From Jewel Weed by Harrison Fisher

But in 2026, nothing comparable exists for our befouled media landscape.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 2, 2026

Smudge-ugly oil derricks befouled the graves, and by around 1905, graves and gravestones had been moved to a new Home of Peace, well east of downtown.

From Los Angeles Times Feb. 27, 2024

My crime was only discovered after everybody returned from some planned activity I had skipped, fished out their baked potatoes and began choking on their befouled legumes.

From Washington Times Nov. 23, 2023

A bad apple might be icky and distasteful, but befouled meat caused a related, but totally distinct, sensation cluster of contamination, queasiness and defilement.

From New York Times Dec. 27, 2021

It was dressed in green hospital pajamas, but these had been befouled by its terror.

From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer

Netflix had been befouling the tape of late, falling 26.7 percent in the past three months and declining on 21 of the previous 29 trading days.

From Slate Feb. 19, 2024

Kingsolver explores how anyone might possibly find a safe place in this world that we keep befouling through ignorance, greed or incompetence.

From New York Times Oct. 19, 2018

Well, for Moore, it’s a blueprint: one rich guy’s knack for befouling the neighborhood foretells another’s ability to mess up the land of the free.

From The New Yorker Sep. 21, 2018

"And then there comes a threat" — Big Coal, enabling modern contrivances while befouling nature — "to their way of life. And they will have to defend it."

From US News Jan. 22, 2016

Despite his lead codpiece, the dust—undoubtedly—filtered in and at him, brought him daily, so long as he failed to emigrate, its little load of befouling filth.

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick




Vocabulary lists containing befoul


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