Meaning

3 senses
  1. (in the plural)A quirk, idiosyncrasy, frailty, or mannerism; an unusual habit that is slightly strange or silly.

    Try to look past his foibles and see the friendly fellow underneath.

    Schwäche, Eigenheit, Marotte

  2. A weakness or failing of character.

    Schwäche

    сла́бостьslábostʹ

  3. Part of a sword between the middle and the point, weaker than the forte.

    the weaker part of a sword's blade from the forte to the tip

Examples

4 sentences
  1. His satirical novel criticized the foibles of human nature.

    ruВ его сатирическом романе содержалась критика слабостей человеческой натуры. — odexed

  2. Her tendency to talk too much when she's nervous is a foible I can tolerate.

  3. Well their lives became such an open book that even the smallest foible became magnified almost beyond recognition.

  4. Tom magnanimously overlooks Mary's many foibles.

    deTom sieht großmütig über die vielen kleinen wunderlichen Angewohnheiten, die Maria hat, hinweg. — Pfirsichbaeumchen

Translations

6 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
a weakness or failing of character:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
a quirk, idiosyncrasy, or mannerism; unusual habit:

Origin

1640–50, from Early Modern French foible (“feeble”) (contemporary French faible). Doublet

1640–50, from Early Modern French foible (“feeble”) (contemporary French faible). Doublet of feeble.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: foibles
Singularfoible
Pluralfoibles

regular

Synonyms

3 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

2 related words
Relatedfeeble
Derivedfoibled

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
foible — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto