Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A foe in battle; an enemy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An active enemy; one who is in open enmity with or engaged in hostilities against another or others.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An enemy in war.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
enemy ; afoe in battle; an armed or unarmedadversary ; a demon
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an armed adversary (especially a member of an opposing military force)
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; "foeman" in many recent eds.
The Lady of the Lake Walter Scott 1801
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Exhaustively knowledgeable about the science of cognition, and a foeman who gives as good as he gets (if not better) in the nature-versus-nurture culture wars, Pinker seemed the perfect foil for some of my ideas about the IQ test.
Boing Boing 2009
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They appreciated him as a foeman worthy of their intellect, and they listened intently, following every word.
Chapter 38 2010
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I think I would have demurred, though, at invitations to sit with someone who had previously made wide and spectacularly false anti-union claims in the purest of bad faith, blatantly lied about me and my work, and shown himself, frankly, not to be a foeman worthy of my steel.
Archive 2009-06-01 2009
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I tell you, Watson, this time we have got a foeman who is worthy of our steel.
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I think I would have demurred, though, at invitations to sit with someone who had previously made wide and spectacularly false anti-union claims in the purest of bad faith, blatantly lied about me and my work, and shown himself, frankly, not to be a foeman worthy of my steel.
Fascism 2009
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It is; for he was his country's foe, though not a foeman born.
The Phoenissae 2008
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Ere the Christian could avail himself of this mishap, his nimble foeman sprung from the ground, and, calling on his steed, which instantly returned to his side, he leaped into his seat without touching the stirrup, and regained all the advantage of which the Knight of the Leopard hoped to deprive him.
The Talisman 2008
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A third time he approached in the same manner, when the Christian knight, desirous to terminate this illusory warfare, in which he might at length have been worn out by the activity of his foeman, suddenly seized the mace which hung at his saddle-bow, and, with a strong hand and unerring aim, hurled it against the head of the Emir, for such and not less his enemy appeared.
The Talisman 2008
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It is; for he was his country's foe, though not a foeman born.
The Phoenissae 2008
bilby commented on the word foeman
"He extracted from his quiver,
Did the controversial Roman,
An argument well fitted
To the question as submitted,
Then addressed it to the liver,
Of the unpersuaded foeman."
- 'The Devil's Dictionary', Ambrose Bierce (1911).
December 7, 2007