foggy
- 01 A2 Elementary
filled with thick mist or clouds near the ground that make it difficult to see.
characterized by the presence of fog; obscured by low-lying mist that reduces horizontal visibility.
Simple“It was so foggy that the driver could only see a few meters ahead.”
In context“The morning was exceptionally foggy, forcing the airport to cancel all regional flights until the sun could burn off the thick mist.”
- 02 B1 Intermediate
not clear in your mind, or difficult to remember.
mentally confused, befuddled, or lacking clarity; also used to describe vague or indistinct memories.
Simple“I have a foggy memory of that trip because I was very young.”
In context“After working for eighteen hours straight, his thoughts became foggy and he struggled to complete even the simplest calculations.”
From fog + -y, originally in the sense "covered with tall grass; marshy; thick". It is not clear whether fog (“mist”) is a back-formation from foggy (“covered with tall, obscuring grass”) or has a separate Germanic origin, and hence whether foggy (“covered with tall grass”) and foggy (“obscured by mist”) represent one word or two. See fog ("mist"; "tall grass") for more.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.