What is foil?

Famous quotes containing the word foil:

    Within his crib is surest ward,
    This little babe will be thy guard,
    If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
    Then flit not from this heavenly boy.
    Robert Southwell (1561?–1595)

    Like bright metal on a sullen ground,
    My reformation, glitt’ring o’er my fault,
    Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
    Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers,
    We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate
    hence-forward,
    Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves
    from us,
    We use you, and do not cast you aside—we plant you permanently within us,
    We fathom you not—we love you—there is perfection in you also,
    You furnish your parts, toward eternity,
    Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)