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The water violet (Hottonia palustris); also, the less showy American plant H. inflata.

Any plant of the genus Myriophyllum, aquatic herbs with whorled leaves, the submersed ones pinnately parted into capillary divisions.

The buck bean.

A distilled water from a variety of aromatic plants, as rosemary, millefoil, etc.; -- originally used as a vulnerary in gunshot wounds. Parr.

Anything behind, serving as a foil; as, the statue had a background of red hangings.

To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil. The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim. Cowper.

To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to as, to balk expectation. They shall not balk my entrance. Byron.

To elude, or evade by craft; to foil. [Obs.] When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage. Shak.

pus, having a curved, cylindrical pod tipped with a short, clawlike point. Bird's-foot trefoil. (Bot.) (a) A genus of plants (Lotus) with clawlike pods. L. corniculatas, with yellow flowers, is very common in Great Britain.

A fencer's foil. [Obs.]

Having a bud or button, or a kind of trefoil, at the end; furnished with knobs or buttons. Cross bottony (Her.), a cross having each arm terminating in three rounded lobes, forming a sort of trefoil.

hite or reddish flowers and intensely bitter leaves, sometimes used in medicine; marsh trefoil; -- called also bog bean.

Any card of the suit of cards having a figure like the trefoil or clover leaf. (pl.) The suit of cards having such figure.

To cover with a layer of any substance; as, to coat a jar with tin foil; to coat a ceiling.

See Counterfoil.

hat the lower part can be shut and fastened, while the upper part remains open. -- Dutch foil, Dutch leaf, or Dutch gold, a kind of brass rich in copper, rolled or beaten into thin sheets, used in Holland to ornament toys and paper; -- called also Dutch mineral, Dutch metal, brass foil, and bronze leaf. -- Dutch liqu…

To defeat or foil thoroughly in any scheme. [Slang.]

licy, a policy like that of Fabius Maximus, who, by carefully avoiding decisive contests, foiled Hannibal, harassing his army by marches, countermarches, and ambuscades; a policy of delays and cautions.

To practice the art of attack and defense with the sword or with the foil, esp. with the smallsword, using the point only. He will fence with his own shadow. Shak.

One who fences; one who teaches or practices the art of fencing with sword or foil. As blunt as the fencer's foils. Shak.