Thing Not To Be Today If You're A Man: foxy.

Foxy means like a fox. Well, sometimes it means like a fox, anyway.

Foxy paper, for instance, is stained red-brown by the action of mould; foxy wine tastes of the fruits of the wild Northern American plant Vitus labrusca, which are also known as fox grapes; foxy oats have a musty smell from having got wet, gone a bit off (spoiled, for US readers) and then dried out again.

But what about a foxy person?

Well, it depends, doesn't it. A foxy man is cunning (like a fox) but a foxy woman is alluring...

...and what that's got to do with foxes (apart from their beauty) I have absolutely no idea.

So: is the male-female foxy dichotomy hugely sexist? Or merely utterly delightful?

Well, as the woman comes out best in this particular comparison, I, for one, am not complaining.

Thing Not To Be Today If You're A Man: foxy. A fox has been called a fox in England since before the Norman Conquest. The word's origins can be traced right back to the Sanskit puccha, which means tail.