fowl

noun (plural same or fowls)

• (also domestic fowl) a gallinaceous bird kept for its eggs and flesh; a domestic cock or hen.

  • The domestic fowl is derived from the wild red junglefowl of SE Asia (see junglefowl)
• any other domesticated bird kept for its eggs or flesh, e.g. a turkey or goose.
• [mass noun] the flesh of domesticated birds as food; poultry: a stew of various meats and fowl
• used in names of birds that resemble the domestic fowl:spurfowl
• birds collectively, especially as the quarry of hunters: an abundance of game, fowl, and fish
• archaic a bird.