فَاحِشَةٌ

[An excess; an enormity; anything exceeding the bounds of rectitude:] a thing excessively, enormously, or beyond measure, foul, evil, bad, abominable, or unseemly; [gross, immodest, lewd, or obscene:] (Mgh:) or anything not agreeable with truth: (Lth, Mgh:) or a sin, or crime, that is very foul, evil, bad, &c.: or anything forbidden by God: (K:) or any saying, or action, that is foul, evil, bad, &c.: (TA:) and ↓ فَحْشَاءُ signifies the same as فَاحِشَةٌ; (S;) or an enormity, or excessive sin, beyond measure foul, evil, bad, &c.; or a thing that reason disapproves, and the law regards as foul, evil, bad, &c.: (Bd in ii. 164:) the plural of فَاحِشَةٌ is فَوَاحِشُ. (Msb, TA.) Also, particularly, Adultery, or fornication; (S, Mgh, Msb, K;) and so ↓ فَحْشَاءُ: (Bd in xii. 24; &c.:) so in the Qur'an, 4:23 and lxv. 1 [as well as in numerous other instances]: or the فاحشة [or excess] there mentioned is the women's going out without permission: (Mgh, Msb:) or their using foul language against their husband's relations, by reason of the sharpness of their tongues. (Esh-Sháfi'ee.) And ↓ فَحْشَاءُ particularly signifies Niggardliness, tenaciousness, or avarice, (A, K,) in the payment of the poor-rate: or the abstaining [altogether] from paying it. (TA.) So in the Qur'an, 2:271. (A, TA.)