[f. FOG sb. 2 Cf. befog.]
1. trans. To envelope with or as with fog; to stifle with fog. Also fig.
1599. Soliman & Perseda, I. C ij.
| Fog not thy glory with so fowle eclipse, | |
| Let not thy Souldiers sound a base retire, | |
| Till Persea stoope, and thou be conquerour. |
1601. Bp. Barlow, Defence, 19. Somtimes by clouds it [the sun] is enueloped, and by mists fogged.
a. 1684. Leighton, Comm. 1 Peter i. 10–12. That the light of Divine truth, may shine clear in them, and not be fogg’d, and misted with filthy vapours.
1811. Byron, Lett. to Mrs. Byron, 14 Jan. Now, I might have stayed, smoked in your towns, or fogged in your country, a century, without being sure of this, and without acquiring any thing more useful or amusing at home.
1881. W. C. Russell, Ocean Free Lance, I. vi. 296. The thunder and hurricanes which filled her with groaning noises, and fogged her decks with flying spume.
2. fig. To put (a person) in a ‘fog’; to bewilder utterly, mystify, perplex; to render (ideas, etc.) misty or confused.
1818. Keats, Lett., Wks. 1889, III. 124. I am this morning making a general clearance of all lent Books—all—I am afraid I do not return all—I must fog your memories about them.
1888. D. C. Murray, Paul Jones’s Alias, in Illust. Lond. News, Xmas No., 11/1. ‘These folks fog me,’ he said. ‘I can’t talk their lingo, and so I like to be by myself.’
1890. R. B. Sharpe, in Nature, XLII. 30 Oct., 634/1. To merge many species under the genus Picus, and again under Fringilla, which most of us consider to belong to recognizable genera, tends to fog and confuse the ideas of geographical distribution, and by no means simplifies the study.
3. intr. a. To become covered or filled with fog. (In mod. Dicts.) b. To fog off: to perish from damp, to damp off.
1849. Florist, Aug., 221. Watch carefully that decayed leaves do not cause the cuttings to fog off.
1880. N. & Q., 20 Nov., 406/1. A gardener speaks of his cuttings from bedding plants which have not taken root as having ‘fogged off.’
4. Photogr. (trans.) To cloud or cover with an obscuring coating. Also to fog over.
1854. Jrnl. Photogr. Soc., I. 21 Jan. 163/2. The relative values of acid or alkaline baths with respect to ‘fogging over’ the impressions taken on collodion.
1865. Reader, No. 116. 320/1. The negative was slightly fogged.
1893. Sir R. Ball, Story of Sun, 210. Totality was over a little sooner than was expected, and the flash of sunlight fogged the plate and removed all traces of the corona though some other features of interest were left.
5. Railway slang. (intr.) To place fog-signals on the line in foggy weather.
1886. Lloyd’s Weekly, 26 Dec., 1/5. Engaged in the duty of ‘fogging.’
1891. Star, 21 Feb., 3/1. While he was fogging on the south side of Charing-cross-bridge.
Hence Fogged ppl. a.; Fogging ppl. a.
1617. Hieron, Wks. (1619–20), II. 191. In some sicknesses, you shall see a man forget himselfe a little by some fogging sleepe; but oh how sicke is he when he awakes?
1661. Feltham, Resolves, II. Lusoria, xxviii.
| The Sun, before man’s damning Fall | |
| Threw a fogg’d guilt upon this All. |
1849. Florist, Dec., 321. The whole of the stock should be carefully gone over, to remove any fogged foliage, particularly about the neck of the plant, or at its juction with the soil.
1886. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll, 20. Under the face of the fogged city moon, by all lights and at all hours of solitude or concourse, the lawyer was to be found on his chosen post.
1890. Woodbury, Encycl. Photogr., 300. Fogged plates will be produced if white light be not excluded from the dark room, or if the light employed be too actinic.
