Can someone explain me this sentence and what does "being foiled" mean in the context below?

"Amid shrieks and wailing and the shouts of men he came over them, swept towards the bridges and was foiled!"

In the book The Hobbit, the dragon Smaug flies to destroy a town (the lake-town Esgaroth) but I think he is, kind of, "prevented" from doing so, according to my dictionary.

How is blowing up a bridge a problem for a dragon to destroy a town? Or do I misunderstand something?[Image]

Question

Can someone explain me this sentence and what does "being foiled" mean in the context below?

"Amid shrieks and wailing and the shouts of men he came over them, swept towards the bridges and was foiled!"

In the book The Hobbit, the dragon Smaug flies to destroy a town (the lake-town Esgaroth) but I think he is, kind of, "prevented" from doing so, according to my dictionary.

How is blowing up a bridge a problem for a dragon to destroy a town? Or do I misunderstand something?[Image]

Answer

To be foiled is to be prevented in succeeding, so in this case, Smaug's plan to destroy a town is unsuccessful. I don't know for certain because I haven't read the book, but the following sentence suggests that the town is inside a lake, so Smaug wasn't able to pass through the water.

Answer

Often times being foiled means being fooled or tricked.

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