foe

[foh]

noun

a person who feels enmity, hatred, or malice toward another; enemy: a bitter foe.
a military enemy; hostile army.
a person belonging to a hostile army or nation.

an opponent in a game or contest; adversary: a political foe.
a person who is opposed in feeling, principle, etc., to something: a foe to progress in civil rights.
a thing that is harmful to or destructive of something: Sloth is the foe of health.

Origin of foe

before 900; Middle English foo, Old English fāh hostile, gefāh enemy; cognate with Old High German gifēh at war. See feud¹

Synonyms for foe

1. See enemy. 1, 3–5. opponent, antagonist.

Antonyms for foe

1–3. friend.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for foes

enemy, adversary, antagonist, rival, anti

Examples from the Web for foes

Contemporary Examples of foes

But Brown had not been among those Johnson heard speak of the cops as foes.
90 Seconds of Fury in Ferguson Are the Key to Making Peace in America
Michael Daly
November 26, 2014
Nevertheless, Grande manages to shoot her foes to smithereens.
Ariana Grande’s Gay-Friendly Intergalactic Dance Party
Amy Zimmerman
August 13, 2014
For Nixon, it was the Watergate break-in, designed to filch political plans of his 1972 foes.
How Iraq Became Obama’s War
Jeff Greenfield
July 6, 2014
In fact, foes of abortion have opposed most every single public policy that contributes to lowering the abortion rate in America.
Thank The Pill For Abortion Rate Drop
Sally Kohn
February 3, 2014
That perception is a much bigger problem for supporters of same-sex marriage than its foes.
Why Pushing a Catholic School to Keep a Married Gay Man Is Bad for the LGBT Movement
Keli Goff
January 24, 2014

Historical Examples of foes

In the next scene Richard meets his foes, and at first plays the king.
The Man Shakespeare
Frank Harris
With foes in front, and foes in our rear, our journey is like to be one of danger.
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper
The truce of the water was over, but these foes did not meet again that night.
The Rock of Chickamauga
Joseph A. Altsheler
At one stroke of his sword Grant had cut apart the circle of his foes.
The Rock of Chickamauga
Joseph A. Altsheler
Quite otherwise, I call them not foes (as some would), but friends.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885
Various

British Dictionary definitions for foes

foe

noun

formal, or literary another word for enemy

Word Origin for foe

Old English fāh hostile; related to Old High German fēhan to hate, Old Norse feikn dreadful; see feud 1

FoE

FOE

abbreviation for

Friends of the Earth

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

Word Origin and History for foes

foe

Old English gefa "foe, enemy, adversary in a blood feud" (the prefix denotes "mutuality"), from fah "at feud, hostile," from Proto-Germanic *fakhaz (cf. Old High German fehan "to hate," Gothic faih "deception"), probably from PIE root *peig- "evil-minded, treacherous, hostile" (cf. Sanskrit pisunah "malicious," picacah "demon;" Greek pikros "bitter;" Lithuanian piktas "wicked, angry," pekti "to blame"). Weaker sense of "adversary" is first recorded c.1600.