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Definition of foil : 1. A blunt weapon used in fencing, resembling a smallsword in the main, but usually lighter and having a button at the point.
2. A leaf or very thin sheet of metal; as, brass foil; tin foil; gold foil.
3. A thin coat of tin, with quicksilver, laid on the back of a looking- glass, to cause reflection.
4. 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.
5. Anything that serves by contrast of color or quality to adorn or set off another thing to advantage.
6. Failure of success when on the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage.
7. 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.
8. The track or trail of an animal.
9. To blunt; to dull; to spoil; as, to foil the scent in chase.
10. To defile; to soil.
11. To render ( an effort or attempt) vain or nugatory; to baffle; to outwit; to balk; to frustrate; to defeat.
12. To tread under foot; to trample.

Synonyms:

flub, sweep, cross, get across, itch, impair, transparency, bungle, foul up, traverse, dumbfound, cosset, stymie, amaze, cut the ground from under, nonplus, bollix, balk, gravel, vex, hinder, block, get over, flummox, vitiate, resist, obstruct, check, fluff, peril, hydrofoil, crossbreed, hydroplane, bewilder, pose, botch, mar, perplex, mystify, thwart, plunder, stupefy, regulate, clog, stop, torment, bollocks up, cocker, puzzle, complement, flake, retard, get, blow, bedevil, expose, impede, enhancer, stump, scupper, corrupt, cover, cut through, oppose, bollix up, rag, bar, hybridize, rape, queer, muck up, bilk, counterpart, featherbed, go bad, louse up, bumble, hamper, span, track, embarrass, cut across, scotch, spoil, elude, delay, fumble, interbreed, transparentness, bollocks, prevent, baffle, antithesis, baby, transparence, pamper, crucify, contrast, leaf, counteract, pass over, stay, endanger, intersect, botch up, ball up, violate, bodge, mess up, evade, encumber, bobble, screw up, muff, stick, mishandle, dun, hybridise, despoil, allow, deflower, mollycoddle, coddle, film, indulge, frustrate, interrupt

defeat, win, beat, conquer, trump, overpower, predominate, master, surmount, outplay, triumph, crush, overthrow, humble, capture, quell, overturn, subdue, subject, trounce, rout, outdo, vanquish, checkmate, overcome, whip

attacker, archenemy, enemy, disputant, assailant, antagonist, opponent, contestant, opposer, opposite, rival, villain, assaulter, competitor, combatant, adversary, foe

Usage examples:

• And this is perhaps the moment when I may best explain to you the character of what you are to read: I conceive you as a man quite beyond and below the reticences of civility: with what measure you mete, with that shall it be measured you again; with you, at last, I rejoice to feel the button off the foil and to plunge home. - "Father Damien an Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu", Robert Louis Stevenson.
• His style seemed to me the poetical foil of all the prosers of all time. - "Confessions of Boyhood", John Albee.
• It consisted of a small, flexible steel wire hardly bigger than the blade of a foil, surmounted by a good- sized lead ball, and the whole covered with a closely woven fabric. - "The-Darrow-Enigma", Severy, Melvin Linwood.