[OE. fuȝ(e)lian, f. fuȝel FOWL.] intr. To catch, hunt, shoot, or snare wildfowl.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., xxv. (Z.), 146 Aucnpor, ic fuȝlie.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, II. 157. Thus ffoulyd this ffaukyn · on ffyldis abouȝte.
1519. Presentm. Juries, in Surtees Misc. (1888), 32. Þt no man fyshe nor fewle in the dam.
1530. Palsgr., 557/2. I fowie after byrdes, Je vas a la pipée.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. vii. 192. The Tenour of them [Commissions] is, to give a Liberty to fish, fowl, and hunt.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. xxvii. 419. Such persons as may thus lawfully hunt, fish, or fowl.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 86. One day, taking his hawk on his hand, he went out fowling in a small skiff.
† b. fig. with after, for.
a. 1420. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 2439.
| But tonge of man, as it wel knowe & kid is, | |
| Nat may be tamed; o, fy! man, for schame! | |
| Silence of tunge is wardein of good fame; | |
| And after repreef fissheth, clappeth, fouleth; | |
| The tunge of man, all the body defouleth. |
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., VI. 314. Heir hes thou a commodious and meit place for the slauchtir, that thou foules for.
† c. quasi-trans. To hunt over, beat (a bush).
1611. B. Jonson, Catiline, I. i.
| They hunt all grounds, and draw all seas, | |
| Fowl every brook and bush to please | |
| Their wanton taste. |
