SG Heritage Dictionary

Foil [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Defeat; frustration; the failure of success when on the point of being secured; miscarriage.

2. Death never won a stake with greater toil, nor e'er was fate to near a foil

3. A blunt sword, or one that has a button at the end covered with leather; used in fencing.

4. Isocrates contended with a foil against Demosthenes with a sword.

5. A leaf or thin plate of metal used in gilding.

6. Among jewelers, a thin leaf of metal placed under precious stones, to make them appear transparent, and to give them a particular color, as the stone appears to be of the color of the foil Hence,

7. Any thing of another color, or of different qualities, which serves to adorn, or set off another thing to advantage.

8. Hector has a foil to set him off.

9. A thin coat of tin, with quicksilver, laid on the back of a locking glass, to cause reflection.

Foil [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. To frustrate; to defeat; to render vain or nugatory, as an effort or attempt. The enemy attempted to pass the river, but was foiled. He foiled his adversaries.

2. And by a mortal man at length am foiled.

3. To blunt; to dull.

4. When light wing'd toys of feathered cupid foil -

5. To defeat; to interrupt, or to render imperceptible; as, to foil the scent in a chase.

Foil [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. Failure of success when on the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage.

2. A blunt weapon used in fencing, resembling a smallsword in the main, but usually lighter and having a button at the point.

3. The track or trail of an animal.

4. A leaf or very thin sheet of metal; as, brass foil; tin foil; gold foil.

5. 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.

6. Anything that serves by contrast of color or quality to adorn or set off another thing to advantage.

7. A thin coat of tin, with quicksilver, laid on the back of a looking-glass, to cause reflection.

8. 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 [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. To tread under foot; to trample.

2. To render (an effort or attempt) vain or nugatory; to baffle; to outwit; to balk; to frustrate; to defeat.

3. To blunt; to dull; to spoil; as, to foil the scent in chase.

4. To defile; to soil.

Foil Encyclopedia Britannica

FOIL, thin silvered sheet-copper, highly polished, and coated with mixtures of isinglass and transparent colours, is employed by jewellers to place at the back of paste and inferior stones to improve their tints and lustre. Copper foil, known also as Nuremberg or German foil, is made from thin hammered copper plates by heating between sheets of iron, boiling in solution of tartar and salt, drying, hammering, and lastly polishing with whiting on a convex smooth surface of copper.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 353
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Foilable [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Capable of being foiled.

Foiled [Participle passive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Frustrated; defeated.

Foiled [Imperfect tense and past participle] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Foil

Foiler [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

One who frustrates another, and gains an advantage himself.

Foiler [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

One who foils or frustrates.

Foiling [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Among hunters, the slight mark of a passing deer on the grass.

Foiling [Participle present tense] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Defeating; frustrating; disappointing of success.

Foiling [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A foil.

2. The track of game (as deer) in the grass.

Foiling [Present participle and verbal noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Foil