Forms: see vb. [f. FOIN v.] 1. A thrust or push with a pointed weapon. To cast a foin at: to make a thrust at. Obs. or arch.

1

c. 1450.  Fencing w. two handed Sword, in Rel. Ant., I. 309.

        Thy rakys, thy rowndis, thy quarters abowte,
Thy stoppis, thy foynys, lete hem fast rowte.

2

1558.  Phaer, Æneid, VII. U iv.

        Their parlous pykes in hand, and puncheons close in staues they beare,
And pykes lyke broaches long, and fight with foyne of pointed speare.

3

1565.  Golding, Ovid’s Met., XII. (1593), 284.

                            Sir Dryant with a stake
(Whose poynt was hardned in the fyre) did cast at him a foine,
And thrust him through the place in which the neck and shoulders ioyne.

4

c. 1570.  Marr. Wit & Science, V. iv.

        Kepe at the foyne; come not wythin his reache,
Untyll you see, what good aduauntage you may ketche.

5

1638.  Heywood, Wise Woman, IV. Wks. 1874, V. 330. I had my wards, and foynes, and quarter-blowes.

6

1814.  Southey, Roderick, xxv. 400.

                Many a frustrate stroke was dealt
On either part, and many a foin and thrust
Aim’d and rebated.

7

  fig.  1589.  Pappe with an Hatchet, B ij. I thought that hee which thrust at the bodie in game, would one day cast a foyne at the soule in earnest.

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c. 1610.  J. Davies, Scourge Folly (Grosart), 10/2.

                When they with foynes of wit,
The foes of their vpholders home do hit.

9

  † b.  A wound made by such a stroke. Obs.

10

1543.  Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., III. I. xv. 107. This playstre … is convenient at the begynnyng of a foyne.

11

1576.  Baker, Jewell of Health, 66 a. The water druncke morning and euening, healeth all maner of woundes, being as well without as within the Bodie, foynes, or cuttes.

12

  † 2.  = FOIL sb.5 Obs.

13

[1631.  Gouge, God’s Arrows, 206. Such kind of recreations as make men fitter for warre; such as the Olympian and Isthmian games: and shooting, playing at wasters and foines, all manner of fencings, and other like in use among us.]

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1656.  Osborn, Adv. Son, 22. Wrestling and Vaulting have ever been looked upon by me as more useful than Fencing, being often out dar’d by Resolution, because of the vast difference between a Foyn and a Sword, an House and a Field.

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1701.  Collier, M. Aurel., Life p. I. His Care stoop’d even to the Gladiators and Rope-dancers, ordering the first to fight with Foins, or Buttons upon their Swords, and that the other should have Feather-beds or Mats spread under them, to prevent the Danger of a Fall.

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