foghorn

nounB2+2 meanings Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,478 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: foghorns

A foghorn is the deep horn sounded when visibility is bad. One long note across the water, every minute or so.

Lighthouses and ships both carry them, and the sound is designed to travel through fog where light cannot. Many have been switched off as satellite navigation made them redundant, and their loss is genuinely mourned in coastal towns. The word has a fine figurative use, since describing somebody's voice as a foghorn means it is extremely loud and carries a long way, and it is not a compliment.

Definitions of foghorn

1nounfoghornA device sounding a deep warning note in fog.B2+
“The foghorn went all night.”
2nounloudA very loud voice.C1
“You could hear his foghorn of a voice across the bar.”

Where it comes from

From fog + horn.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Sea & Sailing

First appears in chapter 15 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

← Vocabulary