foible

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: foi=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

foible, a. [OF. foible. See Feeble.].

 Weak; feeble.  Lord Herbert.  [1913 Webster]

foible, n. 

•  A moral weakness; a failing; a weak point; a frailty.  [1913 Webster]

  " A disposition radically noble and generous, clouded and overshadowed by superficial foibles."  [1913 Webster]
•  The half of a sword blade or foil blade nearest the point; -- opposed to forte.

Syn. -- Fault; imperfection; failing; weakness; infirmity; frailty; defect. See Fault.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

foible, n.
1 a minor weakness or idiosyncrasy.
2 Fencing the part of a sword-blade from the middle to the point.

Etymology

F, obs. form of faible (as FEEBLE)

THESAURUS

foible

bad habit, besetting sin, blemish, bug, catch, crack, crotchet, defect, defection, deficiency, drawback, eccentricity, failing, failure, fault, faute, flaw, frailty, hang-up, hole, idiosyncrasy, imperfection, inadequacy, infirmity, kink, little problem, moral flaw, peculiarity, preoccupation, problem, quirk, rift, shortcoming, snag, something missing, taint, vice, vulnerable place, weak link, weak point, weak side, weakness

ROGET THESAURUS

foible

Vice

N vice, evil-doing, evil courses, wrongdoing, wickedness, viciousness, iniquity, peccability, demerit, sin, Adam, old Adam, offending Adam, immorality, impropriety, indecorum, scandal, laxity, looseness of morals, enphagy, dophagy, exophagy, want of principle, want of ballast, obliquity, backsliding, infamy, demoralization, pravity, depravity, pollution, hardness of heart, brutality, corruption, knavery, profligacy, flagrancy, atrocity, cannibalism, lesbianism, Sadism, infirmity, weakness, weakness of the flesh, frailty, imperfection, error, weak side, foible, failing, failure, crying sin, besetting sin, defect, deficiency, cloven foot, lowest dregs of vice, sink of iniquity, Alsatian den, gusto picaresco, fault, crime, criminality, sinner, brothel, gambling house, joint, opium den, shooting gallery, crack house, vicious, sinful, sinning, wicked, iniquitous, immoral, unrighteous, wrong, criminal, naughty, incorrect, unduteous, undutiful, unprincipled, lawless, disorderly, contra bonos mores, indecorous, unseemly, improper, dissolute, profligate, scampish, unworthy, worthless, desertless, disgraceful, recreant, reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable, discreditable, disreputable, Sadistic, base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous, flagrant, flagitious, atrocious, incarnate, accursed, Mephistophelian, satanic, diabolic, hellish, infernal, stygian, fiendlike, hell-born, demoniacal, devilish, fiendish, miscreated, misbegotten, demoralized, corrupt, depraved, evil-minded, evil-disposed, ill-conditioned, malevolent, heartless, graceless, shameless, virtueless, abandoned, lost to virtue, unconscionable, sunk in iniquity, lost in iniquity, steeped in iniquity, incorrigible, irreclaimable, obdurate, reprobate, past praying for, culpable, reprehensible, unjustifiable, indefensible, inexcusable, inexpiable, unpardonable, irremissible, weak, frail, lax, infirm, imperfect, indiscrete, demoralizing, degrading, wrong, sinfully, without excuse, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, genus est mortis male vivere, mala mens malus animus, nemo repente fuit turpissimus, the trail of the serpent is over them all, to sanction vice and hunt decorum down.