Fox \Fox\ (f[o^]ks), n.; pl. {Foxes}. [AS. fox; akin to D. vos, G. fuchs, OHG. fuhs, foha, Goth. fa['u]h[=o], Icel. f[=o]a fox, fox fraud; of unknown origin, cf. Skr. puccha tail. Cf. {Vixen}.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) A carnivorous animal of the genus {Vulpes}, family {Canid[ae]}, of many species. The European fox ({V. vulgaris} or {V. vulpes}), the American red fox ({V. fulvus}), the American gray fox ({V. Virginianus}), and the arctic, white, or blue, fox ({V. lagopus}) are well-known species.
Note: The black or silver-gray fox is a variety of the American red fox, producing a fur of great value; the cross-gray and woods-gray foxes are other varieties of the same species, of less value. The common foxes of Europe and America are very similar; both are celebrated for their craftiness. They feed on wild birds, poultry, and various small animals.
Subtle as the fox for prey. --Shak.
2. (Zo["o]l.) The European dragonet.
3. (Zo["o]l.) The fox shark or thrasher shark; -- called also {sea fox}. See {Thrasher shark}, under {Shark}.
4. A sly, cunning fellow. [Colloq.]
We call a crafty and cruel man a fox. --Beattie.
5. (Naut.) Rope yarn twisted together, and rubbed with tar; -- used for seizings or mats.
6. A sword; -- so called from the stamp of a fox on the blade, or perhaps of a wolf taken for a fox. [Obs.]
Thou diest on point of fox. --Shak.
7. pl. (Ethnol.) A tribe of Indians which, with the Sacs, formerly occupied the region about Green Bay, Wisconsin; -- called also {Outagamies}.
{Fox and geese}. (a) A boy's game, in which one boy tries to catch others as they run one goal to another. (b) A game with sixteen checkers, or some substitute for them, one of which is called the fox, and the rest the geese; the fox, whose first position is in the middle of the board, endeavors to break through the line of the geese, and the geese to pen up the fox.
{Fox bat} (Zo["o]l.), a large fruit bat of the genus {Pteropus}, of many species, inhabiting Asia, Africa, and the East Indies, esp. {P. medius} of India. Some of the species are more than four feet across the outspread wings. See {Fruit bat}.
{Fox bolt}, a bolt having a split end to receive a fox wedge.
{Fox brush} (Zo["o]l.), the tail of a fox.
{Fox evil}, a disease in which the hair falls off; alopecy.
{Fox grape} (Bot.), the name of two species of American grapes. The northern fox grape ({Vitis Labrusca}) is the origin of the varieties called {Isabella}, {Concord}, {Hartford}, etc., and the southern fox grape ({Vitis vulpina}) has produced the {Scuppernong}, and probably the {Catawba}.
{Fox hunter}. (a) One who pursues foxes with hounds. (b) A horse ridden in a fox chase.
{Fox shark} (Zo["o]l.), the thrasher shark. See {Thrasher shark}, under {Thrasher}.
{Fox sleep}, pretended sleep.
{Fox sparrow} (Zo["o]l.), a large American sparrow ({Passerella iliaca}); -- so called on account of its reddish color.
{Fox squirrel} (Zo["o]l.), a large North American squirrel ({Sciurus niger}, or {S. cinereus}). In the Southern States the black variety prevails; farther north the fulvous and gray variety, called the {cat squirrel}, is more common.
{Fox terrier} (Zo["o]l.), one of a peculiar breed of terriers, used in hunting to drive foxes from their holes, and for other purposes. There are rough- and smooth-haired varieties.
{Fox trot}, a pace like that which is adopted for a few steps, by a horse, when passing from a walk into a trot, or a trot into a walk.
{Fox wedge} (Mach. & Carpentry), a wedge for expanding the split end of a bolt, cotter, dowel, tenon, or other piece, to fasten the end in a hole or mortise and prevent withdrawal. The wedge abuts on the bottom of the hole and the piece is driven down upon it. Fastening by fox wedges is called foxtail wedging.
{Fox wolf} (Zo["o]l.), one of several South American wild dogs, belonging to the genus {Canis}. They have long, bushy tails like a fox.
Fox \Fox\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Foxed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Foxing}.] [See {Fox}, n., cf. Icel. fox imposture.] 1. To intoxicate; to stupefy with drink.
I drank . . . so much wine that I was almost foxed. --Pepys.
2. To make sour, as beer, by causing it to ferment.
3. To repair the feet of, as of boots, with new front upper leather, or to piece the upper fronts of.
Fox \Fox\, v. i. To turn sour; -- said of beer, etc., when it sours in fermenting.
Dragonet \Drag"on*et\, n. 1. A little dragon. --Spenser.
2. (Zo["o]l.) A small British marine fish ({Callionymuslyra}); -- called also {yellow sculpin}, {fox}, and {gowdie}.
Adding his voice to the fur debate raised this week between those opting for fake furs and those who won't settle for anything but the real thing, Ferre not only interspersed fake and real skins, but dyed real fox to look like fake leopard and zebra.
In addition to the usual assortment of puppies, kittens, reptiles and fish, the store has a leopard that stars in commercials, a duck that used to appear on a children's program and an organ grinder's monkey that shares his cage with a toy fox terrier.
"He was proud of it," Dahl testified. "He looked like the fox that got the chicken.
Heavy pelt buying by foreigners, a weak dollar and growing customer demand push up prices of mink coats as much as 50% from last year; beaver, raccoon and fox prices are up 10% to 30%.
A full-page ad in this month's Spy magazine contains photographs of a trapper approaching a fox whose leg is caught in a trap, then standing on the animal and suffocating him.
Tracks told where fox and mountain hare had woven a complex story in the night.
The paper printed a photograph of a man with a long pole approaching a creature with a badger's head and a fox's tail against a backdrop of snowy peaks in the Cumbrian hills of northwest England.
"Britain is seen as a sly neo-colonialist, `an old fox' much more skilled than the Americans or Russians in politics _ and therefore potentially more dangerous," the letter said.
His only ally is a hip flask of sloe gin, "the keeper's drink." Picking up the potent, garlicky scent of a fox, Mr. Count pans his lamp and spots a pair of flame-red eyes in a beet field.
The two were found guilty on Jan. 3 of causing unnecessary suffering to a captive fox.
In the Pacific islands and Southeast Asia, some flying fox bats are extinct.
Lanin will portray himself in the film, leading his orchestra in three fox trots and a rock number.
Banks is sponsoring a bill to require fox hunters to stop badger holes with soft earth before a hunt, rather than concrete and rocks.
A volunteer working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service discovered the cave in June while looking for fox dens on an uninhabited island, Chuck Diters, the agency's regional archaeologist, said Friday.
He may or may not be a fox in a henhouse.
Four oiled bird carcasses were found on the beach, while sea lions and a fox seen on the island appeared unaffected, he said.
And to others still, it's nostalgia, a slow fox trot down memory lane.
"He's a sly fox and he's utterly in Saddam's pocket," said Hans-Heino Kopietz, a London-based Middle East analyst who knows him.
Michigan Avenue Furs Inc., Chicago, mixes mink with leather or fox "so we can still be in the $2,000 to $4,000 range."
The fox is in charge of the chicken coop.
A sly fox in a pinstripe suit, Emilio Naranjo is the Boss, the Mayor Daley of Hispanic northern New Mexico.
He sued the Soviets to regain 167 fox skins and 40 polar-bear skins, and complained to the U.S. State Department.
Arctic fox may try to eat the seedlings and reindeer may trample them, but it's too soon to know whether to take preventive measures, Beebe said.
He looked like the fox that got the chicken.
Animal rights groups have battled for years to disrupt "blood" sports such as fox hunting.
Once, two men desecrated the grave of England's greatest fox hunter, the Duke of Beaufort.
In this first programme, we had the easy answers - the fox is killed quickly; many ex-cons have no resources but valid skills; women's abilities are better suited to the home than the police or the armed forces. Yet circumstances invade.
Earlier this month the Foreign Ministry said U.S. diplomats will not be allowed to act as election observers. "To invite them would be the equivalent of asking the fox to guard the henhouse," it said.
"Banks need to realize that there is a fox in the henhouse," he declares.
Today, Siberia, land of the white fox and the snowy owl.