Word
fog
US/ˈfɑɡ/
UK/fˈɒɡ/
Definitions
01weather
n. a thick cloud of very small drops of water in the air that is close to the ground and makes it difficult to see.
n. a dense meteorological aerosol of water droplets or ice crystals near the ground, reducing horizontal visibility to less than one kilometre.
“The morning fog was so thick that the drivers had to slow down on the highway.”
“Heavy fog rolled in from the Atlantic, grounding all departing flights and reducing visibility on the coastal roads to near zero.”
Antonyms
02confusion
n. a state of mind where you feel confused and cannot think clearly.
n. a state of mental obscurity or confusion, often characterised by a lack of focus or slow cognitive processing.
“I was in such a fog after the long flight that I forgot my suitcase.”
“Exhausted by weeks of overtime, he moved through the office in a mental fog, struggling to process even the simplest requests from his colleagues.”
Antonyms
03photography
n. a blur or dark area on a photograph caused by light leaking in or chemical errors.
n. a silver deposit or general darkening on a photographic negative or print, typically caused by stray light or chemical over-development.
“The old film had some fog on the edges because the camera was broken.”
“The technician noted significant chemical fog on the negatives, likely resulting from the high temperature of the developer solution during processing.”
Technical
Synonyms
04to become misty
v. to become covered with small drops of water so that you cannot see through it.
v. to become obscured by condensation or moisture, typically on a glass surface.
“The bathroom mirror started to fog up while I was taking a hot shower.”
“The pilot watched the cockpit windows begin to fog as the aircraft descended rapidly into the humid tropical air mass.”
Usage
often used with 'up'
Synonyms
Antonyms
05to make confusing
v. to make something difficult to understand or see clearly.
v. to obscure or confuse a situation, issue, or memory.
“The lawyer tried to fog the issue by talking about unrelated facts.”
“The passage of time had begun to fog her memory of the event, making it difficult to provide a reliable testimony.”
Antonyms
Etymology
Origin uncertain; but probably of North Germanic origin. Probably either a back-formation from foggy (“covered with tall grass; thick, marshy”), from the earlier-attested fog (“tall grass”) (see below), or from or related to Danish fog (“spray, shower, drift, storm”), related to Icelandic fok (“spray, any light thing tossed by the wind, snowdrift”), Icelandic fjúka (“to blow, drive”), from Proto-Germanic feukaną (“to whisk, blow”), from Proto-Indo-European pug- (“billow, bulge, drift”), from pew-, pow- (“to blow, drift, billow”), in which case related to German fauchen (“to hiss, spit, spray”).
From Middle English fogge (“tall grass”), probably from Norwegian fogg (“tall, worthless grass”); compare Scots fog (“moss; lichen”).
Compare Old Dutch focker.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Idioms
fog a mirror — To be alive.
fogged out — In a confused and unaware mental state.
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/fog