foil.
A very thin sheet of metal.
Meaning & usage
A very thin sheet of metal.
A very thin sheet of plastic.
Thin aluminium/aluminum (or, formerly, tin) used for wrapping food.
wrap the sandwich up in foil
A thin layer of metal put between a jewel and its setting to make it seem more brilliant.
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, but can also serve as the sidekick of the protagonist.
Anything that acts by contrast to emphasise the characteristics of something.
A very thin sword with a blunted (or foiled) tip.
A thin, transparent plastic material on which marks are made and projected for the purposes of presentation. See transparency.
A premium trading card with a glossy finish.
A stylized flower or leaf.
Clipping of hydrofoil.
Clipping of aerofoil/airfoil.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English foyle, from Middle French fueille, from Old French fueille (“plant leaf”), from Late Latin folia, the plural of folium, mistaken as a singular feminine. The literary sense is from the practice of backing a gem with metal foil to make it shine more brilliantly. Doublet of folio and folium, distantly also with phyllo and phyllon.
To cover or wrap with foil.
Clipping of hydrofoil.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English foyle, from Middle French fueille, from Old French fueille (“plant leaf”), from Late Latin folia, the plural of folium, mistaken as a singular feminine. The literary sense is from the practice of backing a gem with metal foil to make it shine more brilliantly. Doublet of folio and folium, distantly also with phyllo and phyllon.
To prevent (something) from being accomplished.
They foiled my plans.
To prevent (someone) from accomplishing something.
I was foiled by my superior
To blunt; to dull; to spoil.
To tread underfoot; to trample.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English foilen (“spoil a scent trail by crossing it”), from Old French fouler (“tread on, trample”), ultimately from Latin fullō (“to trample, full”).
Failure when on the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage.
One of the incorrect answers presented in a multiple-choice test.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English foilen (“spoil a scent trail by crossing it”), from Old French fouler (“tread on, trample”), ultimately from Latin fullō (“to trample, full”).
The track of an animal.
Where this word comes from
From French foulis.
To expand a product of two or more algebraic expressions, typically binomials.
Where this word comes from
From mnemonic acronym FOIL (“First Outside Inside Last”).
To defile; to soil.
Where this word comes from
See file.
A small arc in the tracery of a window, etc.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.