defoil
defoil verb: to defile or despoil.
Verb
defoil (third-person singular simple present defoils, present participle defoiling, simple past and past participle defoiled)
- To defile or despoil.
- A murder'd body huge beside him stood, Of head and right hand both but lately spoiled, His left hand bore the head, whose visage good Both pale and wan with dust and gore defoiled, Yet spake, though dead, with whose sad words the blood Forth at his lips in huge abundance boiled:— Fly Argillan, from...1853, Torquato Tasso, Edward Fairfaix, Leigh Hunt, Godfrey of Bulloigne, Or: The Recovery of Jerusalem, page 252
- Naught, Answered his hot desires : within the air The war-horse neighed, he heard the tourney-spears Ring in attaint, with moans from one defoiled.1890, Frank Carr, Of Palomide: Famous Knight of King Arthur's Round Table, page 81
Forms of defoil
| third-person singular present | defoils |
|---|---|
| present participle | defoiling |
| past participle | defoiled |
| past | defoiled |
Origin of defoil
From Middle English defoil (“to defile”), from Old French defouler.
Questions about defoil
- What does defoil mean?
- Defoil means to defile or despoil.
- What part of speech is defoil?
- Defoil is a verb.
- What is the past tense of defoil?
- The past tense of defoil is defoiled.
Words near defoil in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: defoil (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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