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To tread under foot; to trample. |
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To render (an effort or attempt) vain or nugatory; to
baffle; to outwit; to balk; to frustrate; to defeat. |
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To blunt; to dull; to spoil; as, to foil the scent in
chase. |
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To defile; to soil. |
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Failure of success when on the point of attainment; defeat;
frustration; miscarriage. |
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A blunt weapon used in fencing, resembling a smallsword in
the main, but usually lighter and having a button at the point. |
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The track or trail of an animal. |
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A leaf or very thin sheet of metal; as, brass foil; tin foil;
gold foil. |
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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. |
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Anything that serves by contrast of color or quality to adorn
or set off another thing to advantage. |
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A thin coat of tin, with quicksilver, laid on the back of a
looking-glass, to cause reflection. |
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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. |