Library / English Dictionary

FOG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: fogged    , fogging   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Confusion characterized by lack of clarity

Synonyms:

daze; fog; haze

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

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

confusedness; confusion; disarray; mental confusion; muddiness (a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior)

Derivation:

fog (make less visible or unclear)

foggy (indistinct or hazy in outline)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Droplets of water vapor suspended in the air near the ground

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

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

aerosol (a cloud of solid or liquid particles in a gas)

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

fogbank (a large mass of fog on the sea (as seen from a distance))

ice fog; pogonip (a dense winter fog containing ice particles)

mist (a thin fog with condensation near the ground)

pea-souper; pea soup (a heavy thick yellow fog)

Derivation:

foggy (filled or abounding with fog or mist)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An atmosphere in which visibility is reduced because of a cloud of some substance

Synonyms:

fog; fogginess; murk; murkiness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

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

atmosphere; atmospheric state (the weather or climate at some place)

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

fug ((British informal) an airless smoky smelly atmosphere)

Derivation:

fog (make less visible or unclear)

foggy (obscured by fog)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make less visible or unclear

Example:

the big elm tree obscures our view of the valley

Synonyms:

becloud; befog; cloud; fog; haze over; mist; obnubilate; obscure

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

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

conceal; hide (prevent from being seen or discovered)

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

overshadow (cast a shadow upon)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

fog (confusion characterized by lack of clarity)

fog (an atmosphere in which visibility is reduced because of a cloud of some substance)

Credits

 Context examples: 

On the water he is powerless except at night; even then he can only summon fog and storm and snow and his wolves.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was dark and raining, and I saw more fog and mud in a minute than I had seen in a year.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Of course it rained when we got to London, and there was nothing to be seen but fog and umbrellas.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Our situation was somewhat dangerous, especially as we were compassed round by a very thick fog.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He saw these other scenes through drifting vapors and swirls of sullen fog dissolving before shafts of red and garish light.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was hard to believe that these were the same walls which loomed so gloomily through the fogs of winter.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If you are going away, double-check your accommodations because Neptune will be manufacturing his fog, which is pretty but ultimately confusing to you plans.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Alleyne was still seated on the rock, his griefs and his joys drifting swiftly over his mind like the shadow of clouds upon a sunlit meadow, when of a sudden he became conscious of a low, deep sound which came booming up to him through the fog.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

People with fibromyalgia may also have other symptoms, such as: • Trouble sleeping • Morning stiffness • Headaches • Painful menstrual periods • Tingling or numbness in hands and feet • Problems with thinking and memory (sometimes called fibro fog)

(Fibromyalgia, NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)

The astronomy team captured data from these two galaxies as they were during a period of cosmic history known as the Epoch of Reionization, when most of intergalactic space was suffused with an obscuring fog of cold hydrogen gas.

(Massive primordial galaxies found in ‘halo’ of dark matter, National Science Foundation)