foul line

noun

1

: either of two straight lines extending from the rear corner of home plate through the outer corners of first and third base respectively and prolonged to the boundary of a baseball field

2

: a line across a bowling alley that a player must not step over when delivering the ball

3

: either of two lines on a basketball court parallel to and 15 feet from the backboards behind which a player must stand while shooting a free throw

Examples of foul line in a Sentence

The ball landed just inside the right-field foul line.

Recent Examples on the Web

LaVine scored 18 points in the first quarter and 29 points in the first half on his way to erupting for a game-high 42 points on 12-of-24 shooting from the field, 8-of-13 shooting on threes and 10-of-11 shooting from the foul line to lead the Kings to the win. —Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 7 Dec. 2025

White committed turnovers on back-to-back trips, the C’s young wings had trouble keeping Reaves off the foul line and LA closed the frame with an 8-0 run that included two Brown giveaways. —Zack Cox, Boston Herald, 5 Dec. 2025

Bane made 12 of his 17 field goal attempts and went a perfect 10-for-10 from the foul line. —Ben Verbrugge, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2025

The Tritons also had a 23-11 in points from the foul line. —Bill Center, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1868, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for foul line

• affine
• airline
• align
• aline
• assign
• baseline
• beamline
• benign
• bloodline
• bovine
• byline
• canine

Kids Definition

foul line

noun

1

: either of two straight lines running from the rear corner of home plate through first and third base on to the boundary of a baseball field

2

: a line across which a player must not step (as when bowling or shooting a free throw)