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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.

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

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

Defoe could shape opinion within it, publishing essays and pamphlets as well as reporting secretly to London.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

Defoe recounts the castaway’s thoughts, dreams, fears and disappointments, as well as his meeting with the Caribbean native man he calls Friday.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026

Admittedly, having a striker like Jermain Defoe scoring 15 goals helped, but the Black Cats' unlikely weapon was set-pieces.

From BBC • Sep. 23, 2025

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