foil
see also: FOIL
Pronunciation Noun

foil

  1. A very thin sheet of metal.
  2. (uncountable) Thin aluminium/aluminum (or, formerly, tin) used for wrapping food.
  3. A thin layer of metal put between a jewel and its setting to make it seem more brilliant.
  4. (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.
  5. (figuratively) Anything that acts by contrast to emphasise the characteristics of something.
    • 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.
  6. (fencing) A very thin sword with a blunted (or foiled) tip
    • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene ii]:
      Blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not.
    • Socrates contended with a foil against Demosthenes with a sword.
  7. A thin, transparent plastic material on which marks are made and projected for the purposes of presentation. See transparency.
  8. (heraldiccharge) A stylized flower or leaf.
  9. A hydrofoil.
  10. An aerofoil/airfoil.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

foil (foils, present participle foiling; past and past participle foiled)

  1. (transitive) To cover or wrap with foil.
Verb

foil (foils, present participle foiling; past and past participle foiled)

  1. To prevent (something) from being accomplished.
  2. To prevent (someone) from accomplishing something.
    • And by mortal man at length am foiled.
    • her long locks that foil the painter's power
  3. To blunt; to dull; to spoil.
    to foil the scent in hunting
  4. (obsolete) To tread underfoot; 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.
Synonyms Translations Noun

foil (plural foils)

  1. Failure when on the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage.
    • Nor e'er was fate so near a foil.
  2. One of the incorrect answers presented in a multiple-choice test.
Noun

foil (plural foils)

  1. (hunting) The track of an animal.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify ), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292 ↗, book VII:
      but after giving her a dodge, here's another b— follows me upon the foil.|but after giving her a dodge, here's another b— follows me upon the foil.||tr=|brackets=|subst=|lit=|nocat=1|footer=}}|}}
Synonyms
  • (track of an animal) spoor
Verb

foil (foils, present participle foiling; past and past participle foiled)

  1. (mathematics) To expand a product of two or more algebraic expressions, typically binomials.
Verb

foil (foils, present participle foiling; past and past participle foiled)

  1. (obsolete) To defile; to soil.

FOIL
Proper noun
  1. (mnemonic) An acronym for the algorithm for multiplying two binomials.
Verb

foil (foils, present participle foiling; past and past participle foiled)

  1. (transitive) To apply the FOIL algorithm to.



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