foe

[ foh ]

/ foʊ /

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.

Nearby words

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. 2019

Examples from the Web for 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|DAILY BEAST
Nevertheless, Grande manages to shoot her foes to smithereens.
Ariana Grande’s Gay-Friendly Intergalactic Dance Party|Amy Zimmerman|August 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST

There is no zero evidence to support this claim often made by foes of the Fed.
Who Really Killed JFK? Experts Pick the Wildest Conspiracy Theories|Thomas Flynn|November 20, 2013|DAILY BEAST
In time of war the Athenians send to their foes safe conducts to induce them to assist at the celebration.
Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines|John Claudius Pitrat
It is great sport to get the crabs excited, and to see them, scuttling around, ready to attack their foes.
Mpuke, Our Little African Cousin|Mary Hazelton Wade
With his temper and dangerous surroundings, he was a man to be dreaded by his foes, for he meant to kill any assailant.
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922|Various
He was performing the painful operation when an alarm was given, that foes were approaching the camp.
The Adventures of the Chevalier De La Salle and His Companions, in Their Explorations of the Prairies, Forests, Lakes, and Rivers, of the New World, and Their Interviews with the Savage Tribes, Two Hundred Years Ago|John S. C. Abbott
Judge truth, neither by her foes nor by her friends but by herself.
The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper|Martin Farquhar Tupper

British Dictionary definitions for foes

foe

/ (fəʊ) /

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.

foe

noun

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Origin of foe

Examples from the Web for foes

foe

noun

Word Origin for foe

FoE

FOE

abbreviation for

foe