Foy

name, noun

name, noun ·1 syllable ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Faith, allegiance. countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable

    "He Easterland subdewd, and Danmarke wonne, / And of them both did foy and tribute raise, / The which was dew in his dead fathers dayes […]"

  2. 2
    A feast given by one about to leave a place. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "To Westminster Hall in the morning with Captain Lambert, and there he did at the Dog give me and some other friends of his, his foy, he being to set sail to-day towards the Streights."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
  2. 2
    Synonym of Sainte-Foy, various places, especially Sainte-Foy-la-Grande. obsolete

    "FOY, or St Foy, a town in Guienne, in France, thirty-two miles eaſt of Bourdeaux; it is ſituated under the meridian of London, in 44°, 50′, N. lat."

Example

More examples

"He Easterland subdewd, and Danmarke wonne, / And of them both did foy and tribute raise, / The which was dew in his dead fathers dayes […]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle French foy.

Etymology 2

From Middle French foy (“faith”) and placenames such as Sainte-Foy, variously from sainte foy (“holy faith”) and from the French name of St. Faith.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.