foil
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɔɪl/
rhymes: -ɔɪl
Forms: form: foils
form: foiling
form: foiled
form: foiled
Etymology: From Middle English foilen (“spoil a scent trail by crossing it”), from Old French fouler (“tread on, trample”), ultimately from Latin fullō (“I trample, I full”).
Senses: examples: text: They foiled my plans.
glosses: To prevent (something) from being accomplished.
examples: text: I was foiled by my superior
text: And at the field fought before Bebriacum, ere the battailes joyned, tvvo Ægles had a conflict and bickered together in all their fights: and vvhen the one of them was foyled and overcome, a third came at the very inſtant from the ſunne riſing and chaſed the Victreſſe avvay.
ref: 1606, Caius [i.e., Gaius] Suetonius Tranquillus, “The Historie of Flavius Vespatianus Augustus”, in Philêmon Holland, transl., The Historie of Twelve Cæsars Emperours of Rome. […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes and George Snowdon] for Matthew Lownes, →OCLC, section 5, page 243:
text: And by mortal man at length am foil'd.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: her long locks that foil the painter's power
ref: 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza LV:
text: Perhaps you think you love me now but it is only for an instant, and because you are foiled.
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 28, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
text: First, former Toffee Mikel Arteta sent Walcott racing clear but instead of shooting he squared towards Ramsey, who was foiled by Tony Hibbert.
ref: 2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1 - 0 Everton”, in BBC Sport:
text: Many jihadist plots have been foiled and the security apparatus is getting better, overall, at pre-empting those who would do us ill. But, they say, the nature of the threat and the terrorists’ increasing use of low-tech, asymmetrical tactics such as hire vehicles and knives, make it all but impossible to stop every assault.
ref: 2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer:
glosses: To prevent (someone) from accomplishing something.
examples: text: they foil the scent of one another.
ref: 1711 August 11 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “TUESDAY, July 31, 1711”, in The Spectator, number (please specify the issue number); republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume (please either specify the issue number or |volume=I to VI), New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
glosses: To blunt; to dull; to spoil.
examples: text: King Richard […] caused the ensigns of Leopold to be pulled down and foiled underfoot.
ref: 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes:
text: Whom he did all to pieces breake and foyle, / In filthy durt, and left so in the loathely soyle.
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XXXIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To tread underfoot; to trample.
Synonyms: sense: prevent from being accomplished
word: put the kibosh on
sense: prevent from being accomplished
word: scupper
sense: prevent from being accomplished
word: thwart
Derived terms: foilable
foiler
unfoiled