a. and sb. [a. Fr. foible, obs. f. of faible; see FEEBLE.]
† A. adj. Weak. Obs.
1716. M. Davies, Athenæ Britannicæ, I. The Preface, 53. In case the Spell of English Musical Poetry prove too foible for the Serpentin Venom of that Italick Insect.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Foible, a French Term, frequently us’d also in our Language. It literally signifies weak, and in that Sense is applied to the Body of Animals, and the Parts thereof: As, foible Reins, foible Sight, &c.
B. sb.
1. A weak point; a failing or weakness of character. Cf. FEEBLE sb. 3.
1673. Dryden, Marriage à la Mode, III. i. Let me die, but I fear they have found my foible, and will turn me into ridicule.
1691. Beverley, Thous. Years Kingd. Christ, 1. Finding out the Smaller Foiblees [sic] or Faylures of speech, which signifie little in the main Pursuit of Truth, that ought to be every ones Aim.
1742. Fielding, J. Andrews, Preface (1815), 7. The vices to be found here, are rather the accidental consequences of some human frailty or foible, than causes habitually existing in the mind.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. xiii. A foible of Mr. Holt’s, who did know more about books and men than, perhaps, almost any person Esmond had ever met, was omniscience; thus in every point he here professed to know, he was nearly right, but not quite.
1883. J. Hawthorne, Dust, I. 72. It has always been my foible to speak before I look.
2. Fencing. = FEEBLE sb. 4.
a. 1648. Ld. Herbert, Life (1770), 46. The good Fencing-masters, in France especially, when they present a Foyle or Fleuret to their Scholars, tell him it hath two Parts, one of which he calleth the Fort or strong, and the other the Foyble or weak.
1755. Dict. Arts & Sciences, IV. 3073. Fencing-masters divide the sword into the upper, middle, and lower part; or the fort, middle, and foible.
1833. Reg. Instr. Cavalry, I. 115. The ‘forte’ ought always to gain the ‘foible’ of the opponent’s weapon.
1879. Encycl. Brit., IX. 70. The wrist must be suddenly raised, so as to bring the ‘forte’ of one’s sword to the ‘foible’ of the adversary’s.
