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Which art forger managed to foist fake Vermeer paintings on prominent collectors?

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foist

American  

[foist] / fɔɪst /

verb (used with object)

• foists,
  present (3rd person singular)
• foisted,
  past participle,  past
• foisting
  present participle

1. 

   to force upon or impose fraudulently or unjustifiably (usually followed by on or upon).

   to foist inferior merchandise on a customer.

2. to bring, put, or introduce surreptitiously or fraudulently (usually followed by in or into).

   to foist political views into a news story.

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foist British  

/ fɔɪst /

verb

1. to sell or pass off (something, esp an inferior article) as genuine, valuable, etc

2. to insert surreptitiously or wrongfully

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unfoisted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• foisting
  present
• foisted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• foist
  simple
• foists
  simple
• have foisted
  perfect
• has foisted
  perfect
• am foisting
  progressive
• are foisting
  progressive
• is foisting
  progressive
• have been foisting
  perfect progressive
• has been foisting
  perfect progressive

Past

• foisted
  simple
• had foisted
  perfect
• was foisting
  progressive
• were foisting
  progressive
• had been foisting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will foist
  simple
• will have foisted
  perfect
• will be foisting
  progressive
• will have been foisting
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

foist foists foisted foisting

Eventually, however, he writes that he realized the writers just needed a way to foist him off the show.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

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

Long delays will mean shippers will be trying to foist mushy brown bananas on consumers who might reject them.

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2024

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

Perhaps the Fed’s greatest political liability is its loquacity—the policy statements, economic projections, speeches, press conferences, meeting minutes and the rest that the central bank foists on the public.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026

“Rising Phoenix” is bursting with a glossy visual style courtesy of director of photography Will Pugh, casting the athletes as gods whose speed, strength and finesse shatter preconceptions the world sometimes foists upon them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2020

Lyle Lanley, voiced by Phil Hartman, is the perfect con-man for Springfield, as he foists on them the disastrous and unnecessary monorail, playing on their desire for oneupmanship over neighbouring Shelbyville.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 28, 2019

But the terrible choice the dramatist foists on the mother feels heavy-handed, and that she gets only one chance to explain herself lends to a sense of a character being underserved.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2019

Rather, it foists itself on the eye of the passerby in a manner that is both irritating and melancholy.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

Many people told me they feel Flock’s technology has been foisted on them without their consent, in a way that mirrors anxiety over data centers and AI.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Where the house maintains its edge is in the two additional numbers foisted upon the roulette wheel, a single zero and a double zero, both painted green.

From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025

"A lot of the time we're just scared of these apparitions that we've created and these narratives that we've foisted upon other people."

From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2024

“Nearly every great performance is a well-executed con, an elaborate scheme skillfully foisted on the audience,” Chang wrote in 2020.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2023

Ultimately, Badenhorst was not evil; his inhumanity had been foisted upon him by an inhuman system.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

But it was in his novel “Next Season,” which I’m always foisting on theater friends, that Blakemore managed to capture the evanescent world of the stage in all its heartbreak and glory.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2023

The auto industry plans to keep foisting ever-larger vehicles on the American public.

From Slate ● Dec. 17, 2023

Prior to foisting this mental damage onto a fictional character, Brodesser-Akner's experience delivering her first son was similar to that of her character's.

From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2023

Is it realistic to expect him to be the savior of the Mariners, a duty that many seem to be foisting on him?

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 7, 2022

After a breakfast of fatback and grits with lots of butter—Cook foisting a second helping onto Ophie despite her protests—Ophie was sent to take Mrs. Caruthers her morning tray.

From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland