What does fogbound mean?
Fogbound is an adjective describing a person, vehicle, or place that has been brought to a standstill by dense fog. An airport may be fogbound when flights cannot safely take off or land; a ship may lie fogbound at anchor; a traveller may find themselves fogbound in a mountain pass. The word combines 'fog' with 'bound', used here in the sense of 'tied down' or 'held fast', as in a bound prisoner. It typically appears in descriptive writing and news reporting on travel delays, lending an evocative quality that plainer terms such as 'delayed' lack. Connotations are neutral to slightly literary — fogbound suggests not merely inconvenience but a certain stillness and isolation, a world shrunk to a few grey metres of visibility. It remains a useful, precise term whenever weather rather than mechanical failure or human error halts movement.
adjectiveTrapped, surrounded, or rendered immobile by heavy fog; unable to move or function normally because fog blocks visibility and passage.
- (Of a place, vehicle, or journey) prevented from moving, departing, or operating normally because of dense fog.
"The ferry sat fogbound in the harbour for hours before visibility finally lifted."
"All flights were cancelled as the airport remained fogbound until mid-morning."
"The village lay fogbound in the valley, its church tower swallowed entirely by the grey."
Fogbound is built from 'fog' plus 'bound' in the old sense of 'tied down' — the same 'bound' as in a prisoner bound hand and foot, only here the culprit is weather.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fogbound
Fogbound is formed within English from the noun 'fog' combined with 'bound', the past participle of the verb 'bind', inherited from Old English 'bindan'. The same participle gives English 'bound' in the sense of 'headed for' and underlies words such as 'bondage'. The compound follows a pattern common in English weather-related adjectives, paralleling formations like 'snowbound' and 'icebound'. It came into use in the modern era as travel by sea, rail, and air made weather-induced immobility a familiar experience worth naming.
How fogbound is actually used
The word is almost always used attributively (a fogbound airport, a fogbound road) or predicatively (the ship was fogbound). It carries a mildly atmospheric, often literary connotation and appears frequently in journalism about travel disruption.
Easily confused with fogbound
Snowbound describes being isolated by heavy snow, whereas fogbound refers specifically to being trapped or delayed by dense fog.