Množina: foxes

ETYM AS. fox.
1. Alert carnivorous mammal with pointed muzzle and ears and a bushy tail; most are predators that do not hunt in packs.
2. The gray or reddish-brown fur of a fox.
One of the smaller species of wild dog of the family Canidae, which live in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Foxes feed on a wide range of animals from worms to rabbits, scavenge for food, and also eat berries. They are very adaptable, maintaining high populations close to urban areas.
Most foxes are nocturnal, and make an underground den, or “earth”. The common or red fox Vulpes vulpes is about 60 cm/2 ft long plus a tail (“brush”) 40 cm/1.3 ft long. The fur is reddish with black patches behind the ears and a light tip to the tail. Other foxes include the Arctic fox Alopex lagopus, the fennec, the gray foxes genus Urocyon of North and Central America, and the South American genus Dusicyon, to which the extinct Falkland Islands dog belonged.

Množina: fox grapes

1. Native grape of northeastern United States; origin of many cultivated varieties e.g. Concord grapes; SYN. Vitis labrusca.
2. Purplish-black wild grape of the eastern United States with tough skins that slip easily from the flesh; cultivated in many varieties; SYN. slip-skin grape, fox-grape.

Množina: fox-earths

Množina: fox-huntings

The pursuit of a fox across country on horseback, aided by a pack of foxhounds, specially trained to track the fox's scent.
The aim is to catch and kill the fox. In draghunting, hounds pursue a prepared trail rather than a fox.
Described by the playwright Oscar Wilde as “the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable”, fox-hunting has met with increasing opposition. Animal-rights activists condemn it as involving excessive cruelty, and in Britain groups of hunt saboteurs disrupt it. Fox-hunting dates from the late 17th century, when it arose as a practical method of limiting the fox population which endangered poultry farming, but by the early 19th century it was indulged in as a sport by the British aristocracy and gentry who ceremonialized it. Fox-hunting was introduced into the US by early settlers from England and continues in the S and middle Atlantic regions.

Množina: fox-trots

1. A dance in 2/4 or 4/4 time, characterized by quick steps.
2. 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.
Ballroom dance originating in the US about 1914. Believed to be named for Harry Fox, an American vaudeville comedian who did a distinctive trotting dance to ragtime music. fox trot
A ballroom dance in quadruple time; combines short and long and fast and slow steps fixed sequences. SYN. foxtrot

Množina: foxgloves

ETYM AS. foxes-glôfa, foxes-clôfa,foxes-clife.
Any flowering plant of the genus Digitalis, family Scrophulariaceae, found in Europe and the Mediterranean region. It bears showy spikes of bell-like flowers, and grows up to 1.5 m/5 ft high.
The wild species D. purpurea, native to Britain, produces purple to reddish flowers. Its leaves were the original source of digitalis, a drug used for some heart problems.
Any of several plants of the genus Digitalis; SYN. digitalis.

Množina: foxholes

A small pit for individual shelter against enemy fire; SYN. fox hole.

Množina: foxhounds

Medium-sized glossy-coated hounds developed for hunting foxes.
Small, keen-nosed hound, up to 60 cm/2 ft tall and black, tan, and white in color. There are two recognized breeds: the English foxhound, bred for some 300 years to hunt foxes, and the American foxhound, not quite as stocky, used for foxes and other game.

Množina: foxhunts

Mounted hunters follow hounds in pursuit of a fox; SYN. fox hunting.

Množina: foxtails

Grasses of the genera Alopecurus and Setaria having dense silky or bristly brushlike flowering spikes; SYN. foxtail grass.