foin

• IPA^(key): /fɔɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪn

From Old French foene (“harpoon, fizgig”), from Latin fuscina (“trident”).

foin (plural foins)

1. (archaic) A thrust.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XXI, Chapter iiij, leaf 424r:

     And there kyng Arthur smote syr mordred vnder the shelde wyth a foyne of his spere throughoute the body more than a fadom.
     "And there King Arthur smote Sir Mordred under the shield, with a foin of his spear, throughout the body, more than a fathom."

   • 1600, Edward Fairfax (translator), Jerusalem Delivered, Tasso, XII, lv:

     They move their hands, steadfast their feet remain, / Nor blow nor foin they struck or thrust in vain.

foin (third-person singular simple present foins, present participle foining, simple past and past participle foined)

1. (archaic) To thrust with a sword; to stab at.
   • 1976, Robert Nye, Falstaff:

     These Fastulfrs and Falsts could drink as well as they could foin or fight, and this has also been the case with me.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:

     He stroke, he soust, he foynd, he hewd, he lasht,

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     They lash, they foin, they pass, they strive to bore / Their corselets, and the thinnest parts explore.

2. (archaic) To prick; to sting.

From French fouine (“a marten”).

foin (plural foins)

1. The beech marten (Martes foina, syn. Mustela foina).
2. A kind of fur, black at the top on a whitish ground, taken from the ferret or weasel of the same name.
   • 1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC:

     He came to the stake in a fair black gown furred and faced with foins.

• Fino, Info., ONFI, fino, info, info-

• fålln (Southern Bavarian)

From Middle High German vallen, from Old High German fallan, from Proto-West Germanic *fallan, from Proto-Germanic *fallaną, from Proto-Indo-European *pōl-. Akin to German fallen, Low German fallen, Dutch vallen, English fall, Danish falde, Dutch falla.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɔen/
• Hyphenation: foin

foin (past participle gfoin) (Central Bavarian)

1. (intransitive) to fall; to drop
2. (intransitive, military) to die; to fall in battle; to die in battle; to be killed in action
3. (intransitive) to become lower, to decrease, to decline

Inherited from Middle French foin, from Old French fein, from Latin fēnum, monophthongized variant of Latin faenum (“hay”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)-no-, from *dʰeh₁(y)-.

• IPA^(key): /fwɛ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -wɛ̃

foin m (plural foins)

1. hay

• bête à manger du foin
• chercher une aiguille dans une botte de foin
• faire tout un foin de
• meule de foin
• rhume des foins

• faner
• fenaison
• fenasse
• fenil

• “foin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• fion, info

• fain
• fein

From earlier fein, from Latin faenum.

foin oblique singular, m (oblique plural foinz, nominative singular foinz, nominative plural foin)

1. hay

• fener

• French: foin
• Norman: fain