Foil, n. 1. Failure of success when on the point of attainment; defeat;
frustration; miscarriage. Milton.
Nor e'er was fate so near a foil.
Dryden.
2. A blunt weapon used in fencing, resembling a smallsword in the main,
but usually lighter and having a button at the point.
Blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not.
Shak.
Isocrates contended with a foil against Demosthenes with a word.
Mitford.