foil

1. 1.

   enhance by contrast

   “In this picture, the figures are foiled against the background”

   Broadercontrast
2. 2.

   hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of

   “What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge”

   “foil your opponent”

   Synonymsthwartqueerspoilscotchcrossfrustratebafflebilk

   Broaderprevent

   Narrowerdisappointdashshort-circuitruin
3. 3.

   cover or back with foil

   “foil mirrors”

   Broadercover

Other forms of foil

plural

foils·

past tense

foiled·

present participle

foiling·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about foil

What does foil mean?

foil means "a piece of thin and flexible sheet metal". That is the primary sense; the word has 8 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in foil?

foil has 1 syllable: foil. In IPA it is /ˈfɔɪl/.

What is another word for foil?

Close synonyms include enhancer, hydrofoil, transparency, thwart, queer. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is foil a common word?

foil is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with foil?

2 words rhyme with foil. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.