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
Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 6 Mar. 2025
The manager of the Tampa Bay Rays is rolling with the punches foisted on his team by the elements.
—Dan Schlossberg, Forbes, 3 Mar. 2025
Democrats are going to try to figure out how to salvage the public good out of the wreckage just foist upon us.
—John Parkinson, ABC News, 19 Dec. 2024
But that was foisted on the 6-foot-1 guard anyway after a bone cyst was found on his left femur in the fall.
—Steve Reaven, Chicago Tribune, 5 Mar. 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 21 Mar. 2025.
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foist
verb
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