foil (foil)

[Early mod. E. also foyle; Sometimes, all Day, we hunt the tedious Foil . Congreve, tr. of Ovid's Art of Love. 2t. Defeat; frustration; failure when on the point of achievement. Never had the Turkish Emperor So great a foil by any foreign foe. Marlowė , Tamburlaine, I., iii. 3. Death never won a stake with greater toil, Nor e'er was fate so near a foil . Dryden. 3. In wrestling, a partial fall; a fall not complete according to the rules. If he be only in dangered, and makes a narrow escape, it is called a foyle . R. Carew , quoted in Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 150. Look, how many foils go to a fair fall, so many excuses to a full lie. Fletcher and Rowley , Maid in the Mill, iv. 1. And three indirect insinuations will go as far in law towards giving a downright lie as three foils will go towards a fall in wrestling. Dryden, Duche of York's Paper Defended. To put to (the) foilt, to mar; blemish. For several virtues Have I lik'd several women; never any With so full soul, but some defect in her Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd, And put it to the foil. Shak ., Tempest, iii. 1. For mon ye maks, and mars (say they), and coyne it keepes the coyle, It binds the beare, it rules the roste, it putts all things to Drant, tr. of Horace's Satires, i. foyle. To run the foil, in hunting, to run over the same track a second time in order to put the hounds at fault: said of game. No hare when hardly put to it by the hounds, and run ning foil , makes more doublings and redoublings than the fetcht compa , circuits, turns, and returns in this their intricate peregrination. Fuller , Pisgah Sight, IV. iii. 6. To take the foilt, to accept discomfiture or defeat. Da vies. Sundrie of they me then of the common counsell of the Citie, stan dinge upon theire reputation, and myndynge not to take the foyle, stande to meaneteane and defende theyre cause. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 304. Bestir thee, Jaques, take not now the foil , Lest thou didst lose what foretime thou didst gain. Greene, Friar Bacon, p. 168.