fox

Less common meanings

6. 6
   outwitverbtransitive

   To trick, outwit or cheat someone by cunning; also, to act in a sly or crafty way.

   The striker foxed the goalkeeper with a quick fake, then calmly scored into the empty net.

   A clever player can fox an opponent with a well-timed sacrifice.

   Similartrick, outwit, fool, deceive, outsmart

7. 7
   confuseverbtransitive

   To leave someone confused or unable to understand.

   The final exam question foxed even the best students.

   Complicated tax forms fox many first-time filers.

   UsageOften passive or with a problem as the subject: I'm completely foxed, the question foxed me.

   Similarbaffle, puzzle, stump, perplex, bewilder

   Note

   Here nobody needs to be trying. A crossword, an exam question or a tax form can fox you simply by being hard. That inanimate subject is what separates it from the "outwit" sense, where a person sets out to deceive.

8. 8
   dog breednouncountable or uncountable

   A small, energetic terrier of the type bred to drive foxes from their burrows; a fox terrier.

   His wire fox barked sharply at every passing bicycle.

   Best in Show went to a wire fox, a breed that has often won at Westminster.

9. 9
   broad thinkernouncountable or uncountable

   A thinker who draws on many different ideas and experiences without fitting them into one system, as opposed to a hedgehog.

   The essayist was a fox, drawing freely from science, art, and folklore.

   Unlike systematizers, foxes weave disparate insights into a loose, pluralistic outlook.

   Similarpluralist, eclectic

   Oppositehedgehog

   Note

   Half of a famous pair. Isaiah Berlin, adapting a line from Archilochus, set the fox and its many ideas against the hedgehog and its single vision. The word is almost always used with its opposite in view, as in "a hedgehog rather than a fox," one philosopher's verdict on Dewey. Calling a thinker a fox is a description, not a criticism: it means range rather than system. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Isaiah Berlin adapted a line attributed to Archilochus about the fox and the hedgehog. nybooks.com
   • Berlin contrasted thinkers drawing on many ideas with thinkers guided by a single vision. en.wikipedia.org
   • The wording is Richard Rorty’s, in “Dewey’s Metaphysics”; its appearance under Tiles’s name in Wiktionary obscures the original attribution. dokumen.pub
10. 10
    nounslangfigurativelycountable or uncountable

    A person, typically a woman, with reddish-brown hair.

    Similarredhead, ginger

    Note

    A narrower slang use, tied to the animal's russet coat rather than to looks alone. It shares its register and its usual target with the "attractive person" sense, so a listener may hear a compliment on appearance where only hair color was meant. When the hair is the point, naming it keeps the meaning clear, as in a copper-haired fox. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • The animal has a russet coat. en.wikipedia.org
11. 11
    verbarchaictransitive

    To intoxicate someone, or to stupefy them with drink.

    Similarintoxicate, stupefy, befuddle, inebriate

    Oppositesober

    Note

    Samuel Pepys wrote in 1661 that he drank so much wine he was "almost foxed." The past participle is the natural home of this sense: someone is foxed the way they might be fuddled. It ties drink to the idea of a stupefied mind, close to the "baffle" sense. In both, the head is left unable to work. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • Samuel Pepys wrote in 1661 that wine had left him "almost foxed"; the words occur in his diary entry for 29 September. gutenberg.org
12. 12
    swordnounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    A sword, so called from the figure of a fox, or perhaps a wolf mistaken for a fox, stamped on the blade.

    Thou diest on point of fox.

    1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”

    Note

    Long obsolete, this sword sense now lives mainly for readers of Shakespeare, whose Henry V (1600) has the threat "Thou diest on point of fox." On point of fox means at the tip of the blade, much as we might say at swordpoint. A modern writer can use it only in deliberate period pastiche; anywhere else, readers will picture the animal. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Henry V was first published in 1600; 1599 is its probable composition year. folger.edu
    • Henry V contains the quoted threat; its speaker is Pistol. folger.edu
    • In this passage, 'on point of fox' means at the sword's point. en.wikisource.org
13. 13
    noun

    A radio code a pilot calls out to signal that an air-to-air weapon has been launched.
14. 14
    noun

    A concealed radio transmitter that competitors attempt to locate, the object of the sport of radio direction finding.
15. 15
    noun

    A small strand twisted together from several rope yarns, used aboard ship for seizings, mats, sennits, and gaskets.
16. 16
    noun

    A wedge inserted in the split end of a bolt, which spreads it and makes it hold fast.
17. 17
    verb

    Of beer or a similar drink, to turn sour during fermentation, or to make it turn sour.
18. 18
    verb

    To repair boots by fitting new leather to the front of the uppers.
19. 19
    noun

    The common or gemmeous dragonet (Callionymus lyra), a small, flattened fish that lives on sandy seabeds off European coasts.
20. 20
    noun

    The fourteenth card of the Lenormand deck, used in cartomancy.