Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a person who feels enmity, hatred, or malice toward another; enemy: a bitter foe.
- a military enemy; hostile army.
- a person belonging to a hostile army or nation.
- an opponent in a game or contest; adversary: a political foe.
- a person who is opposed in feeling, principle, etc., to something: a foe to progress in civil rights.
- a thing that is harmful to or destructive of something: Sloth is the foe of health.
noun
- formal, or literary another word for enemy
abbreviation for
- Friends of the Earth
Old English gefa “foe, enemy, adversary in a blood feud” (the prefix denotes “mutuality”), from fah “at feud, hostile,” from Proto-Germanic *fakhaz (cf. Old High German fehan “to hate,” Gothic faih “deception”), probably from PIE root *peig- “evil-minded, treacherous, hostile” (cf. Sanskrit pisunah “malicious,” picacah “demon;” Greek pikros “bitter;” Lithuanian piktas “wicked, angry,” pekti “to blame”). Weaker sense of “adversary” is first recorded c.1600.