# fog

Pronunciation: say "FOG" US /fɑɡ/, UK /fɒɡ/

## Noun

1. A thick cloud that forms close to the ground; also, the dimness and poor visibility it creates.
   - Simple: A thick cloud near the ground that makes it hard to see.
   - _A bank of fog rolled in off the bay just after sunset._
   - _The hikers lost the trail in the fog and sat on a rock until it thinned._
2. A state of mind marked by sluggishness and confusion.
   - Simple: A tired, confused feeling when you cannot think clearly.
   - _For a week after the surgery she drifted through her days in a fog._
   - _A second cup of coffee finally began to lift the fog of a sleepless night._
4. A mist or film that clouds a surface.
   - Simple: A cloudy layer, like steam, that covers a surface such as glass.
   - _She wiped the fog from the bathroom mirror with the corner of her towel._
   - _A thin fog on the inside of the windshield made the road hard to see._
8. In computer graphics, distance fog: a haze effect that makes objects fade from view the farther they are from the viewer.
   - Simple: In computer pictures, a haze that makes faraway things slowly fade from view.
   - _The engine adds fog to hide the point where distant terrain stops being drawn._
   - _Turning off fog in the settings reveals mountains miles away, at some cost to the frame rate._
9. A deposit of silver or another kind of blur on a negative or a developed photograph.
   - Simple: A cloudy mark or blur on a photo or on its negative.
   - _Expired film often shows a faint fog across the whole negative._
   - _The developer was too warm, and the prints came out with heavy fog._

## Verb

3. To become clouded with condensation, or to cause a surface such as glass to become clouded ('fog up').
   - Simple: To become, or make something, cloudy with tiny drops of water, like glasses or a mirror.
   - _My glasses fog the moment I walk into a warm room._
   - _The windshield fogged up as soon as all four of us got into the car._
5. To make something confusing or unclear.
   - Simple: To make something hard to understand or think about clearly.
   - _Too much jargon can fog an otherwise simple argument._
   - _Grief fogged his memory of the weeks after the funeral._
6. To cover something with fog, or with a fine spray or mist that resembles fog, such as an insecticide.
   - Simple: To cover something with fog or a fine spray, such as a spray that kills insects.
   - _County trucks fog the neighborhood for mosquitoes every few weeks in summer._
   - _Stagehands fogged the theater just before the curtain rose._
7. To become covered with fog, or with something resembling fog.
   - Simple: To become covered with fog, or with something that looks like fog.
   - _Low fields near the river often fog over at dawn._
   - _By evening the harbor had fogged in completely, and the ferries stopped running._
10. In photography, to make film or a print dim or cloudy, or to spoil it by exposure to stray light; also, to become so.
   - Simple: In photography, to spoil film or a picture so it looks cloudy, often by letting light in.
   - _Leaving the paper in the developer too long will fog the print._
   - _Opening the camera too early fogged the whole roll of film._

## Verb

11. To practice, especially as a lawyer, in a petty or mean way; to pettifog. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To work in a small-minded, mean way, like a lawyer who fusses over tiny points.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The fresh growth of grass that comes up on a field after it has been mowed or grazed.
- (noun) Tall, decaying grass left standing in a field after the mowing or grazing season is over.
- (verb) To pasture cattle on a field's aftergrass, or to graze the aftergrass off a field.
- (verb) To become covered with the kind of grass known as fog.
- (noun) Moss, the soft green plant that grows in low, thick mats on damp ground, rocks, and trees.

## Origin

Where it comes from is uncertain, though a North Germanic source is likely. Probably it was formed by back-formation from foggy, meaning "thick, marshy, covered with tall grass," which came from the older fog ("tall grass"), or else it comes from or is connected to Danish fog, "spray, drift, shower, storm." In the second case it would be akin to Icelandic fok ("spray, snowdrift") and fjúka ("to blow, drive"), which come from Proto-Germanic *feukaną ("to whisk, blow"), and German fauchen ("to hiss, spit, spray") would be a relative.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/fog (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).