Foil
To tread under foot; to trample.
To render (an effort or attempt) vain or nugatory; to baffle; to outwit; to balk; to frustrate; to defeat.
To blunt; to dull; to spoil; as, to foil the scent in chase.
To defile; to soil.
Failure of success when on the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage.
A blunt weapon used in fencing, resembling a smallsword in the main, but usually lighter and having a button at the point.
The track or trail of an animal.
A leaf or very thin sheet of metal; as, brass foil; tin foil; gold foil.
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.
Anything that serves by contrast of color or quality to adorn or set off another thing to advantage.
A thin coat of tin, with quicksilver, laid on the back of a looking-glass, to cause reflection.
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.
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Foil Quotations
Why does everyone think the future is space helmets, silver foil, and talking like computers, like a bad episode of Star Trek?
Tracey Ullman
I'm a pretty convenient foil for a lot of people.
Kevin Costner
We can't gather the intelligence we need to foil future attacks, if we are blindly granting terrorists the right to remain silent. But for some reason, we've already done that - with the terrorist who tried to bring down Flight 253.
Peter King
If you really want to diminish a candidate, depict him as the foil of his handler. This is as old in American politics as politics itself.
Karl Rove
Foil Translations
foil in French is fleuret, feuille mince
foil in German is Metallfolie, Folie
foil in Italian is foglia laminata
foil in Norwegian is forpurre, forhindre, florett, folie
foil in Spanish is lamina
foil in Swedish is folie, florett
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