foil

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English foille, foil < Old French fuelle, fueille, foille (< Latin folia leaves), fuel, fueil, foil (< Latin folium leaf, blade)

Synonyms
4. contrast, complement, counterpart.

noun Fencing.

a flexible four-sided rapier having a blunt point.

foils, the art or practice of fencing with this weapon, points being made by touching the trunk of the opponent's body with the tip of the weapon.

Origin:
1585–95; origin uncertain

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins

World English Dictionary

foil¹ (fɔɪl)

—vb
1.	to baffle or frustrate (a person, attempt, etc)
2.	hunting (of hounds, hunters, etc) to obliterate the scent left by a hunted animal or (of a hunted animal) to run back over its own trail
3.	archaic to repulse or defeat (an attack or assailant)

—n
4.	hunting any scent that obscures the trail left by a hunted animal
5.	archaic a setback or defeat

[C13 foilen to trample, from Old French fouler, from Old French fuler tread down, full²]

'foilable¹

—*adj*

foil² (fɔɪl)

—n
1.	metal in the form of very thin sheets: gold foil; tin foil
2.	the thin metallic sheet forming the backing of a mirror
3.	a thin leaf of shiny metal set under a gemstone to add brightness or colour
4.	a person or thing that gives contrast to another
5.	architect a small arc between cusps, esp as used in Gothic window tracery
6.	aerofoil short for hydrofoil

—vb
7.	to back or cover with foil
8.	architect Also: foliate to ornament (windows) with foils

[C14: from Old French foille, from Latin folia leaves, plural of folium]

foil³ (fɔɪl)

—n
	a light slender flexible sword tipped by a button and usually having a bell-shaped guard

[C16: of unknown origin]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

foil

c.1300, foilen "to spoil a trace or scent by running over it," from O.Fr. fouler "trample," from V.L. *fullare "to clean cloth" (by treading on it), from L. fullo "one who cleans cloth, fuller," of unknown origin. Sense of "frustrate the efforts of" first recorded 1660s. Related: Foiled; foiling. Foiled

again! as a cry of defeat and dismay is from at least 1847.

foil

"thin sheet of metal," late 14c., from O.Fr. fueille "leaf," from L. folia "leaves," pl. (mistaken for fem. sing.) of folium "leaf" (see folio). The sense of "one who enhances another by contrast" (1580s) is from the practice of backing a gem with metal foil to make it shine

better. The meaning "light sword used in fencing" (1590s) could be from this sense, or from foil (v.). The modern sense of "metallic food wrap" is from 1946.

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

FOIL definition

File Oriented Interpretive Language. CAI language.
["FOIL - A File Oriented Interpretive Language", J.C. Hesselbart, Proc ACM 23rd National Conf (1968)].

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

foil

in architecture, leaf-shaped, indented spaces which, combined with cusps (small, projecting arcs outlining the leaf design), are found especially in the tracery (decorative openwork) of Gothic windows. The term is derived from the Latin folium, meaning "leaf." A window or wall ornamented with foils is referred to as foiled. There are three kinds of such stylized foliated decoration: trefoil, quatrefoil, and cinquefoil, or three-, four-, and five-lobed leaves.

Learn more about foil with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences

State rail firms have the ability to foil smaller rivals and new entrants.

The obvious and easy move would be to have such a character be a bumbler or a

clown, a foil for the star.

Transfer to a plate and loosely cover with foil to keep warm.

Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly oil the foil.

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tain aerofoil airfoil basket hilt blind blind-stamp

Matching Quote

"The trouble is that the expression 'material thing' is functioning already, from the very beginning, simply as a foil for 'sense-datum'; it is not here given, and is never given, any other role to play, and apart from this consideration it would surely never have occurred to anybody to try to represent as some single kind of things the things which the ordinary man says that he 'perceives.'"

-J.L. Austin