| foil | 1. A leaf or very thin sheet of metal; as, brass foil; tin foil; gold foil. 2. A thin leaf of sheet copper silvered and burnished, and afterwards coated with transparent colours mixed with isinglass; employed by jewelers to give colour or brilliancy to pastes and inferior stones. 3. Anything that serves by contrast of colour or quality to adorn or set off another thing to advantage. "As she a black silk cap on him began To set, for foil of his milk-white to serve." (Sir P. Sidney) "Hector has a foil to set him off." (Broome) 4. A thin coat of tin, with quicksilver, laid on the back of a looking-glass, to cause reflection. 5. 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. Foil stone, an imitation of a jewel or precious stone. Origin: OE. Foil leaf, OF. Foil, fuil, fueil, foille, fueille, F. Feuille, fr. L. Folium, pl. Folia; akin to Gr, and perh. To E. Blade. Cf. Foliage, Folio. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| foin | 1. <zoology> The beech marten (Mustela foina). See Marten. 2. A kind of fur, black at the top on a whitish ground, taken from the ferret or weasel of the same name. " He came to the stake in a fair black gown furred and faced with foins." (Fuller) Origin: F. Fouine a marten. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| foison | Rich harvest; plenty; abundance. " That from the seedness the bare fallow brings To teeming foison." (Shak) Origin: F. Foison, fr. L. Fusio a pouring, effusion. See Fusion. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Foix, Charles | <person> French neurologist, 1882-1927. See: Foix-Alajouanine myelitis, Foix-Alajouanine syndrome, Foix-Cavany-Marie syndrome. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Foix-Alajouanine myelitis | A disorder of the lower spinal cord in adult males resulting in progressive paraplegia. Synonym: angiodysgenetic myelomalacia, Foix-Alajouanine myelitis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Foix-Alajouanine syndrome | <syndrome> Thrombophlebitis of spinal veins resulting in a subacute ascending painful flaccid paralysis from necrotic myelitis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Foix-Cavany-Marie syndrome | <syndrome> Constellation of facio-pharyngo-glosso-masticatory diplegia with automatic voluntary dissociation without associated dementia or forced laughing or crying usually caused by bilateral large artery infarcts of the opercular cortex. (05 Mar 2000) |