FOX

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Fox mean? 

• FOX (noun)
  The noun FOX has 7 senses:

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

2. a shifty deceptive person

3. the grey or reddish-brown fur of a fox

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

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

6. a member of an Algonquian people formerly living west of Lake Michigan along the Fox River

7. the Algonquian language of the Fox

  Familiarity information: FOX used as a noun is common.

• FOX (verb)
  The verb FOX has 3 senses:

1. deceive somebody

2. be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly

3. become discolored with, or as if with, mildew spots

  Familiarity information: FOX used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOX (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:

A shifty deceptive person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

dodger; fox; slyboots

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 3

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)

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Charles James Fox; Fox

Instance hypernyms:

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

Sense 5

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Fox; George Fox

Instance hypernyms:

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

Sense 6

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 7

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)

• FOX (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they fox    ... he / she / it foxes   
Past simple: foxed   
Past participle: foxed   
-ing form: foxing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deceive somebody

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

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

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

This question befuddled even the teacher

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:

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)

 Context examples 

Then he went his way very sorrowful; but the old fox came and said, Why did not you listen to me?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

That brow was the brow of the public Charles Fox, the thinker, the philanthropist, the man who rallied and led the Liberal party during the twenty most hazardous years of its existence.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"The region's savanna landscapes provide critical resources for people and other animals," said Fox.

(Land cover change in Botswana savannas: Don't blame the elephants, National Science Foundation)

The Foxhound is a medium-sized glossy-coated hound developed for hunting foxes.

(Foxhound, NCI Thesaurus)

The Genetic Monitoring Facility functions to protect the genetic integrity of the inbred strains and transgenic lines of rodents utilized in the various research programs at Fox Chase.

(Laboratory Animal Genetic Monitoring Resource, NCI Thesaurus)

She is a stray chicken in a world of foxes.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was a fearful cry, but the fox, leaping away in fright, did not drop the ptarmigan.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I observed the young animal’s flesh to smell very rank, and the stink was somewhat between a weasel and a fox, but much more disagreeable.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Our old fox is wily; oh! so wily, and we must follow with wile.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The red fox made him say all this, I knew, to exhibit him to me in the light he had indicated on the night when he poisoned my rest.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)