foil
/fɔɪl/ noun, verb, proper noun
- noun A very thin sheet of metal.
- noun (chiefly Euro English) A very thin sheet of plastic.
- noun (chiefly uncountable) Thin aluminium/aluminum (or, formerly, tin) used for wrapping food. “wrap the sandwich up in foil”
- noun A thin layer of metal put between a jewel and its setting to make it seem more brilliant.
- noun (authorship, figuratively) In literature, theatre/theater, etc., a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character and who usually acts as an opponent or antagonist, but can also serve as the sidekick of the protagonist.
- noun (figuratively) Anything that acts by contrast to emphasise the characteristics of something.
- noun (fencing) A very thin sword with a blunted (or foiled) tip.
- noun A thin, transparent plastic material on which marks are made and projected for the purposes of presentation. See transparency.
- verb (transitive) To cover or wrap with foil.
- verb To prevent (something) from being accomplished. “They foiled my plans.”
- verb To prevent (someone) from accomplishing something. “I was foiled by my superior”
- verb To blunt; to dull; to spoil.
- verb (obsolete) To tread underfoot; to trample.
- noun Failure when on the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage.
- noun One of the incorrect answers presented in a multiple-choice test.
- noun (hunting) The track of an animal.
- verb (mathematics) To expand a product of two or more algebraic expressions, typically binomials.
- verb (obsolete) To defile; to soil.
- noun (architecture) A small arc in the tracery of a window, etc.
- proper noun (mnemonic) An acronym for the algorithm for multiplying two binomials.
Synonyms
aluminium foil silver foil silver paper tin foil put the kibosh on scupper thwart mar mess up vitiate ball up blight bumble botch bugger up bungle contaminate corrupt crab deprave enhancer hydrofoil transparency queer spoil scotch cross frustrate baffle bilk
Etymology
From Middle English foyle, from Middle French fueille, from Old French fueille (“plant leaf”), from Late Latin folia, the plural of folium, mistaken as a singular feminine.
The literary sense is from the practice of backing a gem with metal foil to make it shine more brilliantly.
Doublet of folio and folium, distantly also with phyllo and phyllon.
From Middle English foilen (“spoil a scent trail by crossing it”), from Old French fouler (“tread on, trample”), ultimately from Latin fullō (“to trample, full”).
From French foulis.
From mnemonic acronym FOIL (“First Outside Inside Last”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To tread under foot; to trample.
- verb To render (an effort or attempt) vain or nugatory; to baffle; to outwit; to balk; to frustrate; to defeat.
- verb To defile; to soil. [Obs.]
- noun Failure of success when on the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage. Milton.
Etymology [F. fouler to tread or trample under one's feet, to press, oppress. See Full, v. t.]
Etymology [See 6th File.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “foil”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details