different between foil vs derail

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??l/
• Rhymes: -??l

Etymology 1

From Middle English foil, foille, from Old French fueille (“plant leaf”), from Late Latin folia, the plural of folium, mistaken as a singular feminine. Doublet of folio and folium.

Noun

foil (countable and uncountable, plural foils)

1. A very thin sheet of metal.
2. (uncountable) Thin aluminium/aluminum (or, formerly, tin) used for wrapping food.

3. A thin layer of metal put between a jewel and its setting to make it seem more brilliant.
4. (authorship, figuratively) In literature, theatre/theater, etc., a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character and who usually acts as an opponent or antagonist.
5. (figuratively) Anything that acts by contrast to emphasise the characteristics of something.

   • As she a black silk cap on him begun / To set, for foil of his milk-white to serve.

   • 1725-1726, William Broome, The Odyssey

     Hector has also a foil to set regard

6. (fencing) A very thin sword with a blunted (or foiled) tip
   • 1784-1810, William Mitford, History of Greece

     Socrates contended with a foil against Demosthenes with a sword.

7. A thin, transparent plastic material on which marks are made and projected for the purposes of presentation. See transparency.
8. (heraldry) A stylized flower or leaf.
9. A hydrofoil.
10. An aerofoil/airfoil.

Synonyms

• (thin aluminium/aluminum): aluminium foil, silver foil, silver paper, tin foil

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

foil (third-person singular simple present foils, present participle foiling, simple past and past participle foiled)

1. (transitive) To cover or wrap with foil.

Etymology 2

From Middle English foilen (“spoil a scent trail by crossing it”), from Old French fouler (“tread on, trample”), ultimately from Latin full? (“I trample, I full”).

Verb

foil (third-person singular simple present foils, present participle foiling, simple past and past participle foiled)

1. To prevent (something) from being accomplished.

2. To prevent (someone) from accomplishing something.

   • And by mortal man at length am foil'd.
3. To blunt; to dull; to spoil.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)

4. (obsolete) To tread underfoot; to trample.
   • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes

     King Richard […] caused the ensigns of Leopold to be pulled down and foiled underfoot.

   • Whom he did all to pieces breake and foyle, / In filthy durt, and left so in the loathely soyle.

Synonyms

• (prevent from being accomplished): put the kibosh on, scupper, thwart

Translations

Noun

foil (plural foils)

1. Failure when on the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage.
   • 1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis

     Nor e'er was fate so near a foil.

2. One of the incorrect answers presented in a multiple-choice test.

Etymology 3

From French foulis.

Noun

foil (plural foils)

1. (hunting) The track of an animal.

Synonyms

• (track of an animal): spoor

Translations

Etymology 4

From mnemonic acronym FOIL (“First Outside Inside Last”).

Verb

foil (third-person singular simple present foils, present participle foiling, simple past and past participle foiled)

1. (mathematics) To expand a product of two or more algebraic expressions, typically binomials.

Translations

Etymology 5

See file.

Verb

foil (third-person singular simple present foils, present participle foiling, simple past and past participle foiled)

1. (obsolete) To defile; to soil.

Anagrams

• Filo, LIFO, filo, lo-fi, lofi

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin folium. Compare fueille, from the plural of folium, folia.

Noun

foil m (oblique plural fouz or foilz, nominative singular fouz or foilz, nominative plural foil)

1. leaf (green appendage of a plant which photosynthesizes)

English

Etymology

From French dérailler (“to go off the rails”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d???e?l/, /?di???e?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Noun

derail (plural derails)

1. A device placed on railway tracks causing a train to derail.

   The derail was placed deliberately so that the train would fall into the river.

2. An instance of diverting a conversation or debate from its original topic.

Verb

derail (third-person singular simple present derails, present participle derailing, simple past and past participle derailed)

1. (transitive) To cause to come off the tracks.

2. (intransitive) To come off the tracks.
3. (intransitive, figuratively) To deviate from the previous course or direction.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To cause to deviate from a set course or direction.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:derail.

Synonyms

• unrail

Derived terms

• derailment

Translations

Anagrams

• Adriel, Dariel, Lérida, dialer, earlid, laired, railed, re-laid, redial, relaid