Also 6–7 fogge. [prob. a back-formation from FOGGY a.]
† I. 1. Flabby substance (in the body), unwholesome fat; ‘waste flesh’ (cf. quot. from Palsgrave, s.v. FOGGY 3). Obs. [Cf. FOGGY a. 3.]
1586. Bright, Melanch., xxi. 124. If moist, then in stead of firme substance the bodie is ouercharged with a counterfette kind of fatte, and hydropical fogge, which beareth shewe of good habite.
II. [Cf. FOGGY a. 4.]
2. Thick mist or watery vapor suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth’s surface; an obscured condition of the atmosphere due to the presence of dense vapor.
1544. Late Exped. Scotl., C iij a. The sonne brake out, the fogge went awaye, and a cleare daye was lefte vs, wherof euery man receiued as yt were a newe corage, longynge to se the enemies.
1578. T. Ellis, in Hakluyt, Voy., III. 41. The fift of Iuly there fell a hidious fogge and mist, that continued till the nineteenth of the same.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 357.
| The starrie Welkin couer thou anon, | |
| With drooping fogge as blacke as Acheron. |
1534. Milton, Comus, 432.
| Som say no evil thing that walks by night, | |
| In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorish fen. |
1670. Evelyn, Diary, 15 Dec. It was the thickest and darkest fogg on the Thames that was ever known in the memory of man, and I happened to be in the very midst of it.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 49, 24 March, ¶ 8. Looking round upon the dreary region, and feeling nothing but bleak fields and naked trees, hills obscured by fogs, and flats covered with inundations, he did for some time suffer melancholy to prevail upon him.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, I. iii. 28. A dense fog hung so low that there was no use in keeping watch on the heights.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. x. 66. Learning that his guides had lost their way in the fog, we deemed it prudent to return.
1887. Ashby-Sterry, Lazy Minstr. (1892), 141.
| All form and colour disappear | |
| Within this filthy atmosphere: | |
| ’Tis sometimes yellow, sometimes brown. | |
| A London Fog! |
b. fig. In a fog: at a loss to know what to do.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. i. Wks. 1856, I. 105.
| Stoop and beat downe this rising fog of shame, | |
| That strives to blur thy blood, and girt defame | |
| About my innocent and spotlesse browes. |
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., To the Generall Reader. Whosoeuer thou be, possest with such stupidity & dulnesse, that, rather then thou wilt take paines to search into ancient and noble things, choosest to remaine in the thicke fogges and mists of ignorance, as neere the common Lay-stall of a Citie.
1792. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ode to Ld. Lonsdale, Wks. 1812, III. 45.
| The People’s brains are losing their old fogs. | |
| Juries before the Judges won’t look slink: | |
| No, no; they fancy they’ve a right to think: | |
| They say, indeed they won’t be driven like Hogs. |
1874. Micklethwaite, Modern Parish Churches, 326–7. Our sculptors are still blinded by the pseudo-Greek fog, from which architects escaped half a century ago.
1888. M. Robertson, Lombard St. Myst., xxii. I confess that, until it came to light, I was in a fog.
3. transf. a. Any abnormal darkened state of the atmosphere. b. Any substance diffused through the atmosphere, so as to cause darkness; a dark mass (of smoke). Also slang = SMOKE.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., IV. ii. 48. There is no darknesse but ignorance, in which thou art more puzel’d then the Ægyptians in their fogge.
1699. Garth, The Dispensary, III. 30.
| Feebly the Flames on clumsie Wings aspire, | |
| And smoth’ring Fogs of Smoke benight the Fire. |
c. 1700. Street Robberies Consider’d, Fog, Smoak.
1854. Kelly & Tomlinson, trans. Arago’s Astron. (ed. 5), 133. The fog of 1783 lasted a month. It began almost on the same day in places very remote from each other. It extended from the north of Africa to Sweden; it occupied too a large part of North America, but it did not extend over the sea. It rose above the loftiest mountains.
4. Photogr. A cloud or coating obscuring a developed plate.
1858. T. Sutton, Dict. Photogr., s.v. A frequent cause of fog is the want of a protecting tube in front of the lens, and a diaphragm within the camera.
1873. Spon, Workshop Rec., I. 254/2. Great care must be taken not to continue the intensifying too long, or a deposit of red fog will take place, and the negative will be spoilt.
5. Short for FOG-SIGNAL 2.
1883. F. S. Williams, Our Iron Roads, ix. (ed. 4), 295. As often and as long as the distance-signal stands at ‘danger,’ he is to keep two ‘fogs’ on the rail.
6. attrib. and Comb.
a. attrib., as fog-cloud, -land, -smoke.
1846. Whittier, Exiles, lii.
| On passed the bark in safety | |
| Round isle and headland steep; | |
| No tempest broke above them, | |
| No *fog-cloud veiled the deep. |
1886. Gentl. Mag., CCLX. April, 411. When, however, we attempt to grapple with the genesis of this earth and of worlds in general, we reach the outer boundary of the clear regions of science, and step into the luminous *fogland of poetry.
1808. Scott, Marm., II. Introd. ix.
| Rises the *fog-smoke white as snow, | |
| Thunders the viewless stream below. |
b. esp. in the names of instruments used for giving warning in foggy weather, as fog-alarm, -bell, -detonator, -gong, -gun, -horn, -trumpet, -whistle. Also FOG-SIGNAL.
1841. Longf., Wreck Hesp., 37.
| ‘O father! I hear the church-bells ring, | |
| Oh say, what may it be?’ | |
| ‘’T is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!’— | |
| And he steered for the open sea. |
1892. Pall Mall G., 17 Oct., 4/3. The cap of a *fog-detonator.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 32. A 2-feet Bell Metal Chinese *Fog Gong.
1858. in Merc. Marine Mag., V. Dec., 363. A gong and *fog-horn is also sounded in foggy weather.
c. instrumental and originative, as fog-born, -bound, -bred, -hidden, -ridden, adjs.
1818. Keats, Endymion, II. 278.
| A mad-pursuing of the *fog-born elf, | |
| Whose flitting lantern, through rude nettle-briar, | |
| Cheats us into a swamp, into a fire, | |
| Into the bosom of a hated thing. |
1855. H. Clarke, Dict., *Fog-bound, detained by fog.
1848. Kingsley, Saint’s Trag., I. iii.
| This *fog-bred mushroom-spawn of brain-sick wits, | |
| Who make their oddities their test of grace, | |
| And peer about to catch the general eye. |
1893. Catholic News, 21 Jan., 5/1. That *fog-hidden day.
1887. All Year Round, 26 Feb., 134–5. Here the vast harvest of these sunny climes is on view and on sale, and hence it is distributed, to light up the dull streets of our chilly *fog-ridden towns, with a glow of reflected sunshine.
d. Special comb.: fog-bow, a phenomenon similar to the rainbow, produced by the action of light on the particles of fog; fog-circle = prec.; fog-dog (see DOG sb. 10); fog-drift, a drifting mass of fog; fog-eater (see quot.); fog-logged a., stopped by fog; fog-man = FOGGER3; † fog-pate, a stupid muddle-headed person; fog-ring (see quot.).
1831. Brewster, Optics, xxxii. 268. A *fog-bow, which resembled a nebulous arch, in which the colours were invisible.
1890. E. Gosse, Life P. H. Gosse, 62. On this surface his shadow was projected, the head surrounded, at some distance, by a circling halo of rainbow colours. This is the rare Arctic appearance known as the fog-bow, or *fog-circle.
1853. Ecclesiologist, XIV. Dec., 300. The sky was lowering; *fog-drifts drove rapidly over the bleak crags.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Fog-eater, a synonym of *fog-dog and fog-bow.
1846. Peter Parley’s Annual, VII. 5. The Prince Regent … proceeding towards Hatfield got *‘fog-logged,’ as it was called, and could not proceed.
1883. F. S. Williams, Our Iron Roads, ix. (ed. 4), 294. In that cottage lives a *‘fogman,’ and he was wanted for his duties.
1732. Hyp-Doctor, 2 May 1/1. Reasoning with these eternal *Fog-pates.
1852. Brande, Suppl., *Fog-rings, banks of fog arranged in a circular or ring form.
