Foe
adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An enemy.
"And a mans foes ſhalbe they of his owne houſhold."
- 2 A unit of energy equal to 10⁴⁴ joules.
- 3 Initialism of freedom of expression. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
- 4 an armed adversary (especially a member of an opposing military force) wordnet
- 5 Initialism of forces of evil. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
Show 1 more definition
- 6 a personal enemy wordnet
- 1 Hostile. obsolete
"he, I say, could passe into Affrike onely with two simple ships or small barkes, to commit himselfe in a strange and foe countrie, to engage his person, under the power of a barbarous King […]."
- 1 Initialism of Friends of the Earth. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 2 Initialism of Friends of the Earth. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 3 A surname from German.
- 4 Initialism of Fraternal Order of Eagles. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Man is a more dangerous foe to man than the elements of nature or animals in the wild."
Etymology
From Middle English fo (“foe; hostile”), from earlier yfoh, yvo, ifa (“foe”), from Old English ġefāh (“enemy”), from fāh (“hostile”), from Proto-West Germanic *faih, from Proto-Germanic *faihaz (compare Old Frisian fāch (“punishable”), Middle High German gevēch (“feuder”)), from Proto-Indo-European *peyk/ḱ- (“to hate, be hostile”) (compare Middle Irish óech (“enemy, fiend”), Lithuanian pi̇̀ktas (“evil”)).
Acronym of [ten to the power of] fifty-one ergs, due to equalling 10⁵¹ ergs; coined by Gerald Brown of Stony Brook University in his work with Hans Bethe.