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Foil   /fɔɪl/   Listen
noun
Foil  n.  
1.
Failure of success when on the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage. " Nor e'er was fate so near a foil."
2.
A blunt weapon used in fencing, resembling a smallsword in the main, but usually lighter and having a button at the point. " Blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not." " Isocrates contended with a foil against Demosthenes with a word."
3.
The track or trail of an animal.
To run a foil,to lead astray; to puzzle; alluding to the habits of some animals of running back over the same track to mislead their pursuers.


Foil  n.  
1.
A leaf or very thin sheet of metal; as, brass foil; tin foil; gold foil.
2.
(Jewelry) A thin leaf of sheet copper silvered and burnished, and afterwards coated with transparent colors mixed with isinglass; employed by jewelers to give color or brilliancy to pastes and inferior stones.
3.
Anything that serves by contrast of color or quality to adorn or set off another thing to advantage. "As she a black silk cap on him began To set, for foil of his milk-white to serve." "Hector has a foil to set him off."
4.
A thin coat of tin, with quicksilver, laid on the back of a looking-glass, to cause reflection.
5.
(Arch.) The space between the cusps in Gothic architecture; a rounded or leaflike ornament, in windows, niches, etc. A group of foils is called trefoil, quatrefoil, quinquefoil, etc., according to the number of arcs of which it is composed.
Foil stone, an imitation of a jewel or precious stone.


verb
Foil  v. t.  (past & past part. foiled; pres. part. foiling)  
1.
To tread under foot; to trample. " King Richard... caused the ensigns of Leopold to be pulled down and foiled under foot." " Whom he did all to pieces breake and foyle, In filthy durt, and left so in the loathely soyle."
2.
To render (an effort or attempt) vain or nugatory; to baffle; to outwit; to balk; to frustrate; to defeat. "Her long locks that foil the painter's power."
3.
To blunt; to dull; to spoil; as, to foil the scent in chase.


Foil  v. t.  To defile; to soil. (Obs.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Foil" Quotes from Famous Books



... thought the Scot, snarls not now, because he intends to clear scores with me at once and for ever, when he can snatch me by the very throat, but we will try for once whether we cannot foil a traitor ...
— Quentin Durward • Sir Walter Scott
... the half-bottle of Three Star brandy sold by the grocer. This bottle had its neck broken clean off with a stone. The stone employed for the purpose was picked up, as was the neck of the bottle, with its cork, covered with a tin-foil seal. The seal showed marks of attempts that had been made to uncork the bottle in ...
— The Confessions of Arsene Lupin • Maurice Leblanc
... the acceptance of his later proposals in a Parliament which was packed by the Regent, and by the actual conclusion of a marriage-treaty. But if Francis could spare neither horse nor man for action in Scotland his influence in the northern kingdom was strong enough to foil Henry's plans. The Churchmen were as bitterly opposed to such a marriage as the partizans of France; and their head, Cardinal Beaton, who had held aloof from the Regent's Parliament, suddenly seized the Queen-mother ...
— History of the English People - Volume 4 (of 8) • John Richard Green
... to do, and after a little persuasion he agreed to carry a letter to her on his next marketing trip. My message was prepared by writing it on tissue paper, which was then compressed into a small pellet, and protected by wrapping it in tin-foil so that it could be safely carried in the man's mouth. The probability, of his being searched when he came to the Confederate picketline was not remote, and in such event he was to swallow the pellet. The letter appealed to Miss Wright's loyalty and patriotism, and requested ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan
... hills with flower-and-grass-tufted crags, and forests, while on any summer's day one may see, far away and "sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill," some neighboring village with its graceful spire of purest white gleaming and flaming in the hot sunshine, like marble set in a foil of malachite. ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880 • Various


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