foist

present singular third person foists · participle present foisting · participle past foisted · past foisted

1. transitiveTo introduce or insert surreptitiously or without warrant.

   the Tale of Zayn al-Asnám is one of two which Galland repudiated, as having been foisted into his 8th volume without his knowledge

   a. 1896, William Alexander Clouston, Variants and Analogues of some of the Tales in the Supplemental Nights: Volume 2

   2 more examples

   But apart from this, it is difficult for a man like Watt to tell a long story like Watt's without leaving out some things, and foisting in others.

   1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

   attempts to foist alleged grammatical “correctness” on native speakers of an “incorrect” dialect are nothing but the unacknowledged and oppressive exercise of social control

   2006, Theodore Dalrymple, The Gift of Language

2. transitiveTo force another to accept especially by stealth or deceit; to stick.

   It is only a decade or so since the air was thick with muttering that L.M.S. influence was far too strong on the newly-born Railway Executive and that too many L.M.S. practices were being foisted on the rest of the system.

   1961 May, “Editorial: Mr. M. presents Dr. B. - for a limited season only”, in Trains Illustrated, page 257

   1 more example

   I am, of course, perfectly aware of how old men try to foist on the public the decay of their intellects and all the rest of their senile shortcomings as valuable qualities, the possession of which gives them special authority.

   1933 August, [George] Bernard Shaw, The Political Madhouse in America and Nearer Home: A Lecture, London: Constable & Co, →OCLC, page 11

3. transitiveTo pass off as genuine or worthy.

   foist costly and valueless products on the public

   1969, Jonathan Spivak, “Competitive Problems in the Drug Industry”, in The Wall Street Journal

plural foists

1. historicalslangA thief or pickpocket.

   The foist had lately arrived form the country and was known to be doing a thriving trade in and around Westminster Hall where many country folk and others came to see lawyers.

   1977, Gãmini Salgãdo, The Elizabethan Underworld, Folio Society, published 2006, page 54

   Synonyms: pickpocket

plural foists

1. obsoleteA type of light and fast-sailing ship.

   These are mad boys, I tell you; these are things That will not strike their top-sails to a foist, / And let a man of war, an argosy, Hull and cry cockles.

   c. 1608–1610, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Philaster: Or, Love Lies a Bleeding”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act V, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   Synonyms: fuste, fusta

plural foists

1. obsoleteA cask for wine.
2. Fustiness; mustiness.

1. not comparablepronunciation spellingPronunciation spelling of first.

   Guess that brandy the doc give me was the foist thing set me straight.

   1911, Our Paper, page 491

   5 more examples

   Cause if yer did the foist thing yer know along would come a blizzard an’ make yer out a liar.

   1906, The Elevator Constructor, page 11

   You know more about sculpture than what I do, Dirk, but you don’t know the foist thing about rugs.

   1913, Rupert Hughes, The Amiable Crimes of Dirk Memling, New York, N.Y.; London: D. Appleton and Company, page 84

   Now, the foist thing we gotta do is put a guard on the door an’ see that nobody leaves the house.

   1933, James Reach, Tom Taggart, Oh! Clarissa!: A Comedy in Three Acts, page 54

   And the foist thing you know, he’s a musician, no less![…]They noticed I looked worried, and started givin’ me the third degree, and the foist thing you know they got it odda me.

   1936, Post Stories of 1936, pages 126 and 136

   The foist thing is the govnement gung to take away a big bunch money fa texis, you shouldn’t go to jail.

   1939, The New Yorker, page 22

plural Foists

1. A follower of Chinese Buddhism.