T. C. DesmondJonathan SpivakDavid Rosengarten
Did you know?
That the word foist is commonly used today to mean “to force another to accept by stealth or deceit” makes sense given its original—now obsolete—use in talking about a bit of literal sleight of hand. When it first rolled into English in the mid-1500s, foist was all about dice, dice, baby, referring to palming—that is, concealing in one’s hand a phony die so as to secretly introduce it into a game at a convenient time. The action involved in this cheating tactic reflects the etymology of foist: the word is believed to have come from the obsolete Dutch verb vuisten, meaning “to take into one’s hand.” Vuisten in turn comes from vuyst, the Middle Dutch word for “fist,” which itself is distantly related to the Old English ancestor of fist. By the late 16th century, foist was being used in English to mean “to insert surreptitiously,” and it quickly acquired the “force to accept” meaning that is most familiar today.
Examples of foist in a Sentence
John Tamny, Forbes.com, 7 June 2025
If globalization is to thrive, the world must revert to a kind of globalization where countries export in order to import and where a country’s production, consumption, and investment imbalances are resolved domestically—not foisted on to trade partners.
—Michael Pettis, Foreign Affairs, 21 Apr. 2025
Photo: Lionsgate Kudos to Kidman for consistently rejecting the burden of likability that patriarchal Hollywood foists on so many actresses, and for digging in to roles that often ask her to investigate all facets of the human experience rather than simply the happy ones.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 3 Jan. 2025
Naomi foists that responsibility onto the commanders, then steers the conversation elsewhere.
—Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 6 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for foist
Cite this Entry
“Foist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foist. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.
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foist
verb
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