foil

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“
To the other side of this membrane there is a light metal point or stylus, which touches the tin-foil which is placed around the cylinder.

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Definitions (48)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (15)

  1. transitive verb To prevent from being successful; thwart.
  2. transitive verb To obscure or confuse (a trail or scent) so as to evade pursuers.
  3. noun Archaic A repulse; a setback.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (21)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (8)

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Examples (50)

  • The bottom of my oven is lined with foil, which is just easier to me than using the self clean function. —  Epinions Recent Content for Home
  • '' Every campaign cycle likes to have ... a foil -- someone you can use as the face of the opposition, '' said
  • For foil, the target is the waist up, excluding the arms and head. —  Northern Star
  • Even so, I was struck reading through Ericsson's paper how closely Colvin has stuck to him, right down to his use of Francis Galston as a foil, and a great many of the examples. —  Explananda
  • Up the Chastity Belt (released as Naughty Knights in the U.S.) as his vampy foil, and in some respects this period of exile saw her drift into the role of purring caricature. —  Dusty Wright's Culture Catch - Smart, Pop Culture Podcasts & Written Reviews - Arts & Entertainment
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

gauze ·  cellophane ·  plastic ·  cardboard ·  aluminum ·  rubber ·  waterproof ·  mesh ·  parchment ·  pasteboard ·  tubing ·  tinfoil

Used in the same contextWord Family

foil:   foiling ·  foiled
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English foilen, to trample, defile, variant of filen, to defile; see file3.
  2. Middle English, from Old French foille, from Latin folia, pl. of folium, leaf; see bhel-3 in Indo-European roots.
  3. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. Early modern English also foyle; from Middle English foile, a leaf, = Dutch foelie = G. Danish Swedish folie, foil (def. 3), from Old French foil, foel, fuel, fueil, fueill, masculine, foille, fuile, fueille, feminine, French feuille, feminine, a leaf, sheet of paper, metal, etc., foil in jewelry, a scale, lamina, = Provencal folh, fueilh, masculine, folha, fuelha, feminine, = Old Spanish foja, Spanish hoja, feminine, = Portuguese folha, feminine, = Italian foglio, masculine, leaf of paper, page, paper, foglia, feminine, leaf, lamina, from Latin folium, a leaf, Late Latin a leaf of paper (plural folia, whence the feminine Roman forms), = Greek φύλλον, a leaf. From the same source (Latin folium) are folio, foliage, foliate, exfoliate, etc., trefoil, quatrefoil, cinquefoil, etc., feuillet, feuilleton, etc.
  2. Early modern English also foyle; from Middle English foilen, foylen, more commonly in comp. defoilen, defoylen (with irreg. oi, oy, for reg. ou), generally defoulen, trample upon, tread under foot, fig. subdue, oppress (whence in part the modern sense ‘baffle, frustrate,’ but see to run the foil, under foil, n.), from Old French fouler, foler, foller, trample upon, subdue, defeat, etc., in another form fouller, full (cloth) (modern F. fouler, trample upon, etc., sprain, full (cloth), etc.), in comp. defoler, defuler, deffouler (= Provencal defolar), also afoler, trample upon, tread down, etc., from Middle Latin fullare (also spelled folare, after the Old French form), full cloth, namely by trampling or beating, from Latin fullo(n-), a fuller: see fuller and full.
  3. Early modern English also foyle; from Middle English foyle; from foil, v.
  4. Prob. from foil, v., 2, in the literally sense ‘blunt’; but examples of this sense are wanting.
  5. Middle English foilen, foylen, a rare and improperly form (by confusion with foilen, foylen, foil, q. v.) of foulen, fylen, defile (cf. Middle English defoilen for defoulen, defylen, defile): see file, foul, v., and defile, defoul.
 

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/fɔɪl/
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