foe

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fəʊ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /foʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophones: faux, pho

From Middle English fo (“foe; hostile”), from earlier yfoh, yvo, ifa (“foe”), from Old English ġefāh (“enemy”), from fāh (“hostile”), from Proto-West Germanic *faih, from Proto-Germanic *faihaz (compare Old Frisian fāch (“punishable”), Middle High German gevēch (“feuder”)), from Proto-Indo-European *peyk/ḱ- (“to hate, be hostile”) (compare Middle Irish óech (“enemy, fiend”), Lithuanian pi̇̀ktas (“evil”)).

foe

1. (obsolete) Hostile.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
     , vol.1, ch.23:

     he, I say, could passe into Affrike onely with two simple ships or small barkes, to commit himselfe in a strange and foe countrie, to engage his person, under the power of a barbarous King […].

foe (plural foes)

1. An enemy.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 10:36:

     And a mans foes ſhalbe they of his owne houſhold.

   • 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:

     Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

• (enemy): adversary, enemy, opponent, fiend.

• (antonym(s) of “enemy”): ally, friend

Acronym of [ten to the power of] fifty-one ergs, due to equalling 10⁵¹ ergs; coined by Gerald Brown of Stony Brook University in his work with Hans Bethe.

foe (plural foes)

1. A unit of energy equal to 10⁴⁴ joules.

• bethe (B)

• EFO, EOF, OEF

foe

1. alternative spelling of for

From English bee.

foe

1. bee

• IPA^(key): /foː/

From English four.

• fo, foh

foe

1. four

See 'fo'.

foe

1. variant of 'fo'

See fuh.

foe

1. variant of fuh

• Lorenzo Dow Turner, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (1969)
•  Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association. Afro-Seminole Creole Wikitongues Language Class 

foe

1. alternative form of fo

foe

1. obsolete spelling of foi

From Proto-Polynesian *fohe (compare with Māori hoe, Tongan fohe), from Proto-Central Pacific *voce (compare with Fijian voce), from Proto-Oceanic *pose, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *boʀse, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bəʀsay (“canoe paddle”) (compare with Pangutaran Sama busay, Kelabit besai, Central Dusun bosi, Cebuano bugsáy).^[1]

foe

1. oar
2. paddle