Defoe

American

[dih-foh] / dɪˈfoʊ /

Or De Foe

noun

Daniel 1659?–1731, English novelist and political journalist.

Defoe British

/ dɪˈfəʊ /

noun

Daniel. ?1660–1731, English novelist, journalist, spymaster, and pamphleteer, noted particularly for his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719). His other novels include Moll Flanders (1722) and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“But I still sat there and thought, ‘Jermain Defoe’.

From BBC • May 10, 2026

In the early 1700s, Daniel Defoe was an English Presbyterian on the wrong side of the law.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

When Defoe arrived in 1706, he found himself in a strangely familiar world.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

"The way you lose games is also important," former West Ham and Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe told BBC Sport.

From BBC • Jan. 3, 2026

Delia Defoe, his editor at Papyrus Publishing, claims that she has never met him—or even spoken to him on the phone!

From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023