fowl

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fowl/faʊl/

▶noun (pl. same or fowls)

• 1 (also domestic fowl) a domesticated bird derived from a junglefowl and kept for its eggs or flesh; a cock or hen.

  ■ any domesticated bird, e.g. a turkey.

  ■ used in the names of birds that resemble the domestic fowl, e.g. spurfowl.

• 2 birds collectively, especially as the quarry of hunters.

– derivatives
fowler noun,
fowling noun.

– origin OE fugol, of Gmc origin; rel. to fly1.