Library / English Dictionary

FOX

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Alert carnivorous mammal with pointed muzzle and ears and a bushy tail; most are predators that do not hunt in packs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("fox" is a kind of...):

canid; canine (any of various fissiped mammals with nonretractile claws and typically long muzzles)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fox"):

vixen (a female fox)

Reynard (a conventional name for a fox used in tales following usage in the old epic 'Reynard the Fox')

red fox; Vulpes vulpes (the common Old World fox; having reddish-brown fur; commonly considered a single circumpolar species)

red fox; Vulpes fulva (New World fox; often considered the same species as the Old World fox)

kit fox; prairie fox; Vulpes velox (small grey fox of the plains of western North America)

kit fox; Vulpes macrotis (small grey fox of southwestern United States; may be a subspecies of Vulpes velox)

Alopex lagopus; Arctic fox; white fox (thickly-furred fox of Arctic regions; brownish in summer and white in winter)

gray fox; grey fox; Urocyon cinereoargenteus (dark grey American fox; from Central America through southern United States)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The Algonquian language of the Fox

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("Fox" is a kind of...):

Algonquian; Algonquian language; Algonquin (family of North American Indian languages spoken from Labrador to South Carolina and west to the Great Plains)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A member of an Algonquian people formerly living west of Lake Michigan along the Fox River

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Fox" is a kind of...):

Algonquian; Algonquin (a member of any of the North American Indian groups speaking an Algonquian language and originally living in the subarctic regions of eastern Canada; many Algonquian tribes migrated south into the woodlands from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic coast)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A shifty deceptive person

Synonyms:

dodger; fox; slyboots

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("fox" is a kind of...):

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

Derivation:

fox (deceive somebody)

foxy (marked by skill in deception)

Sense 5

Meaning:

English religious leader who founded the Society of Friends (1624-1691)

Synonyms:

Fox; George Fox

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

religious person (a person who manifests devotion to a deity)

Sense 6

Meaning:

English statesman who supported American independence and the French Revolution (1749-1806)

Synonyms:

Charles James Fox; Fox

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

national leader; solon; statesman (a man who is a respected leader in national or international affairs)

Sense 7

Meaning:

The grey or reddish-brown fur of a fox

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("fox" is a kind of...):

fur; pelt (the dressed hairy coat of a mammal)

Derivation:

fox (become discolored with, or as if with, mildew spots)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become discolored with, or as if with, mildew spots

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "fox" is one way to...):

spot (become spotted)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

fox (the grey or reddish-brown fur of a fox)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly

Example:

This question befuddled even the teacher

Synonyms:

bedevil; befuddle; confound; confuse; discombobulate; fox; fuddle; throw

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "fox" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Verb group:

confuse; disconcert; flurry; put off (cause to feel embarrassment)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fox"):

demoralize (confuse or put into disorder)

amaze; baffle; beat; bewilder; dumbfound; flummox; get; gravel; mystify; nonplus; perplex; pose; puzzle; stick; stupefy; vex (be a mystery or bewildering to)

disorient; disorientate (cause to be lost or disoriented)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Deceive somebody

Example:

We tricked the teacher into thinking that class would be cancelled next week

Synonyms:

flim-flam; fob; fox; play a joke on; play a trick on; play tricks; pull a fast one on; trick

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "fox" is one way to...):

cozen; deceive; delude; lead on (be false to; be dishonest with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fox"):

snooker (fool or dupe)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

fox (a shifty deceptive person)

Credits

 Context examples: 

There were tigers and elephants and bears and wolves and foxes and all the others in the natural history, and for a moment Dorothy was afraid.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

The Finnish Spitz resembles a fox with a pointed muzzle, perked ears.

(Finnish Spitz, NCI Thesaurus)

The mission of the Fox Chase Cancer Center is to prevail over cancer by marshalling hearts and minds in bold scientific discovery, pioneering prevention, and compassionate care.

(Fox Chase Cancer Center, NCI Thesaurus)

For snowshoe hares and 20 other species across the northern hemisphere, the white winter coats that once rendered them nearly invisible to predators now make them conspicuous to lynx, foxes, weasels and hawks.

(Twenty-one species adapted to disappear in the snow. Then, the snow disappeared, National Science Foundation)

Taxonomic family which includes the domestic dog, wolves and foxes.

(Canidae, NCI Thesaurus)

The Basenji is a small, elegant, athletic dog about the size of a fox terrier, with a smooth shiny coat of copper, red, black and tan, black and brindle.

(Basenji, NCI Thesaurus)

Research conducted in the Himalayan Mountains identify a recently discovered three to five million-year-old Tibetan fox, Vulpes qiuzhudingi, as the likely ancestor of the living arctic fox, Vulpes lagopus.

("Out of Tibet" hypothesis: Cradle of evolution for cold-adapted mammals is in Tibet, NSF)

An impromptu circus, fox and geese, and an amicable game of croquet finished the afternoon.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Acts in concert with its partner the Canadian Cancer Society, and with The Terry Fox Foundation, to provide support for cancer research and related programs undertaken at Canadian universities, hospitals and other research institutions.

(National Cancer Institute of Canada, NCI Thesaurus)

On the other hand, there were the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)