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.
... beautiful with the austere and almost unearthly beauty of the youthful dead. The lips were slightly parted, the eyes half closed and drowsy, shaded with sweeping lashes; and a wealth of dark hair in massive plaits served as a foil to the translucent skin. ... — John Thorndyke's Cases • R. Austin Freeman Read full book for free!
... "I began to learn two years ago, and I have outgrown my first foil, and the Colonel has given me a ... — Hildegarde's Neighbors • Laura E. Richards Read full book for free!
... and, moreover, there was the style, the vital and penetrating Emersonianism, which aroused, and no doubt, dazzled the youthful and impressionable reader. Emerson's terse epigrammatic method of writing was congenial to my inability to follow difficult logic. His style seemed to me the poetical foil of all the prosers of all time. Through the reading of this book eventually I became acquainted with Emerson, Alcott and Thoreau. They became my teachers; I followed them until, by their guidance, I was enlarged enough to find my own way into companionship with those ... — Confessions of Boyhood • John Albee Read full book for free!
... other characters, who serve to set off the main figure. Eulalia is an observer, Luitolfo a foil, Ogniben a touchstone. Eulalia and Luitolfo, though sufficiently worked out for their several purposes, are only sketches, the latter perhaps more distinctly outlined than the former, and serving admirably as a contrast to Chiappino. But ... — An Introduction to the Study of Browning • Arthur Symons Read full book for free!
... multifarious interests that filled it, but for all that the autumn was all gold for him and with both hands he gathered it in. Sometimes he would go home with Gray for Sunday. With Colonel Pendleton for master, he was initiated into exercises with dirk and fencing-foil, for not yet was the boxing-glove considered meet, by that still old-fashioned courtier, for the hand of a gentleman. Sometimes he would spend Sunday with John Burnham, and wander with him through the wonders of Morton Sanders' great farm, and he listened to Burnham and the colonel ... — The Heart Of The Hills • John Fox, Jr. Read full book for free!
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