Crossword Dictionary

FOE

foe, foes, foen, fone - n 
an enemy 

wordplays

Synonyms

adversary, antagonist, enemy, hostile, opponent

merriam-webster

Examples

“The birds were silent, watching her to see if she was friend or foe.”

“When Alaric found himself once more outwitted by the machinations of such a foe, he marched southward and began in deadly earnest his third, his ever-memorable siege of Rome.”

“The Stoic doctrine of Fatalism seemed to Epicurus no less deadly a foe of man's true welfare than popular superstition.”

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Etymology

Old English gefea, gefa "foe, enemy, adversary in a blood feud" (the prefix denotes "mutuality"), from adjective fah "at feud, hostile," also "guilty, criminal," from Proto-Germanic *faihaz (source also of Old High German fehan "to hate," Gothic faih "deception"), perhaps from the same PIE source that yielded Sanskrit pisunah "malicious," picacah "demon;" Lithuanian piktas "wicked, angry," peikti "to blame." Weaker sense of "adversary" is first recorded c. 1600.

etymonline