foist
Americanverb (used with object)
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to force upon or impose fraudulently or unjustifiably (usually followed by on orupon ).
to foist inferior merchandise on a customer.
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to bring, put, or introduce surreptitiously or fraudulently (usually followed by in orinto ).
to foist political views into a news story.
verb
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to sell or pass off (something, esp an inferior article) as genuine, valuable, etc
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to insert surreptitiously or wrongfully
Other Word Forms
- unfoisted adjective
Etymology
Origin of foist
1535–45; < Dutch dialect vuisten, derivative of vuist fist 1
Explanation
Did your parents foist your baby sister on you when they went out? It means they forced her on you. Anything — a person or object or idea — can be foisted if it's done by force upon an unwilling party. Foist used to imply a degree of deception rather than just brute force, but that's a meaning that's pretty much lost now: if something's foisted upon you, you know about it. The earlier meaning comes from an old Dutch term for palming a loaded die into a game. Today we call that cheating.
Vocabulary lists containing foist
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Bluest Eye
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Henry David Thoreau "Civil Disobedience" (1849)
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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.
Instead, lenders and credit firms can foist the costs onto taxpayers.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 15, 2026
Second, Marc Rowan, VCs like Peter Thiel, and hedge fund managers like Bill Ackman and Leon Cooperman have been sharply critical of these schools as they work to foist changes in leadership and curriculum.
From Barron's • Dec. 5, 2025
His ego is so big and so fragile that he forced the Twitter staff to rewrite the algorithm to foist his non-entertaining tweets into people's feeds.
From Salon • Mar. 14, 2023
It’s a question the camera seems to foist in turn upon the viewer, most emphatically when it shows us Charlie, in a miserable fury, devouring and vomiting up an entire pizza.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 8, 2022
The waiter tried to foist Toucinho do Ceu and Mousse de Chocolate on them, but Dimple declined for the both of them.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
