Word.ws English Dictionary

foible

/ˈfɔɪbəl/

foible noun: a quirk, idiosyncrasy, frailty, or mannerism; an unusual habit that is slightly strange or silly.

Noun

foible (plural foibles)

  1. (in plural) A quirk, idiosyncrasy, frailty, or mannerism; an unusual habit that is slightly strange or silly.
    • Try to look past his foibles and see the friendly fellow underneath.
    • He knew that this was like the sudden impulse of a madman—incongruous even with his habitual foibles.1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XV, in Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II
  2. A weakness or failing of character.
    • Jesus is reverenced as the one man who has lived unspotted by the world, free from human foibles, able to redeem mankind by his example.1932, William Floyd, The Mistakes of Jesus
    Synonyms:
    fault
  3. Part of a sword between the middle and the point, weaker than the forte.

Adjective

foible (comparative more foible, superlative most foible)

  1. (obsolete) Weak; feeble.
    • The good Fencing-maſters, in France eſpecially, when they preſent a Foyle or Fleuret to their Scholars, tell him it hath two Parts, one of which he calleth the Fort or ſtrong, and the other the Foyble or weak […]a. 1648, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury, page 46

foible meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

foible in Tamil

பண்பு குறைவான, பண்புக் குறைபாடு

foible in Urdu

کمزوری, خرابی, نقص

foible in Bengali

চারিত্রিক দুর্বলতা, ছোটখাটো ত্রুটি, খামখেয়ালি স্বভাব

foible in Malayalam

ലഘുവൈകല്യം, വാളിൻറെ പുരോഭാഗം, ദൗർബല്യം, ന്യൂനത
More languagesFewer languages
foible in Kannada
ಕುಂದುಕೊರತೆ, ಊನ, ದೌರ್ಬಲ್ಯ, ನ್ಯೂನತೆ

Examples of foible in a sentence

  • Marguerite Blakeney was, above all, a woman, with all a woman’s fascinating foibles, all a woman’s most lovable sins.1905 January 12, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], The Scarlet Pimpernel, popular edition, London: Greening & Co., published 20 March...
  • They made up for the respect with which unconsciously they treated him by laughing at his foibles and lamenting his vices.1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XLV, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
  • Final fillip in the Vice-President's study has been a boning up on Premier Khrushchev's favorite foible, proverbs.1959 July 24, “An Ounce of Prevention”, in Meriden Record, page 6:

All 11 example sentences with foible

Synonyms of foible

Forms of foible

Noun
pluralfoibles
Adjective
comparativemore foible
superlativemost foible

Origin of foible

1640–50, from Early Modern French foible (“feeble”) (contemporary French faible). Doublet of feeble.

Words formed from foible

Questions about foible

What does foible mean?
Foible means a quirk, idiosyncrasy, frailty, or mannerism; an unusual habit that is slightly strange or silly.
What is foible in Tamil?
Foible in Tamil is பண்பு குறைவான, பண்புக் குறைபாடு. See Foible meaning in Tamil.
How do you use foible in a sentence?
Marguerite Blakeney was, above all, a woman, with all a woman’s fascinating foibles, all a woman’s most lovable sins.
What part of speech is foible?
Foible can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce foible?
Foible is pronounced /ˈfɔɪbəl/.
What is the plural of foible?
The plural of foible is foibles.

Words near foible in the dictionary

  1. FOIAed
  2. FOIAing
  3. FOIAs
  4. foiba
  5. foibas
  6. foible
  7. foibled
  8. foibles
  9. foid
  10. foidal
  11. foidite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foible (page history and authors); foible (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); foible (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Foible (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); foible (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); foible (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-foible.ogg, en-au-foible.ogg.

Cite this entry: “foible.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/foible. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.