faint

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Lacking strength or vigor; feeble.
2. adj. Lacking conviction, boldness, or courage; timid.
3. adj. Lacking brightness: a faint light in the gloom.
4. adj. Lacking clarity or distinctness: a faint recollection.
5. adj. Likely to fall into a faint; dizzy and weak: felt faint for a moment.
6. n. An abrupt, usually brief loss of consciousness, generally associated with failure of normal blood circulation. See Synonyms at blackout.
7. v. To fall into a usually brief state of unconsciousness.
8. v. Archaic To weaken in purpose or spirit.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Feigned; simulated.
2. Having or showing little force or earnestness; not forcible or vigorous; not active; wanting strength, energy, or heartiness: as, a faint resistance; a faint exertion.
3. Having little spirit or animation; dispirited; dejected; depressed.
4. Having little courage; cowardly; timorous.
5. Having an intense feeling of weakness or exhaustion; inclined to swoon: as, faint with hunger; faint and sore with travel.
6. Weak by reason of smallness or slenderness; small; slender.
7. Having little clearness or distinctness; hardly perceptible by or feebly affecting the senses; indistinct; deficient in brightness, vividness, or clearness, loudness, sharpness, or force; not well defined; feeble; dim: as, a faint light; a faint color; a faint resemblance.
8. n. One of the colored lines (usually pale) on writing-paper.
9. n. plural The impure spirit which comes over first and last in the distillation of whisky, the former being called the strong, and the latter, which is much more abundant, the weak faints. This crude spirit is much impregnated with fetid essential oil (fusel-oil); it is therefore very unwholesome, and must be purified by rectification.
10. n. A fainting-fit; a swoon.
11. To become weak in spirit; lose spirit or courage; sink into dejection; despond; droop.
12. To become faint, weak, or exhausted in body; fail in strength or vigor; languish; droop; especially, to fall into a swoon; lose sensation and consciousness; swoon: sometimes with away.
13. To become faint to the view; become gradually dim or indistinct; fade; vanish.
14. To make faint; weaken; depress; dishearten; deject.
15. Oppressive: applied to the atmosphere.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to swoon; as, faint with fatigue, hunger, or thirst.
2. adj. Wanting in courage, spirit, or energy; timorous; cowardly; dejected; depressed.
3. adj. Lacking distinctness; hardly perceptible; striking the senses feebly; not bright, or loud, or sharp, or forcible; weak; as, a faint color, or sound.
4. adj. Performed, done, or acted, in a weak or feeble manner; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy; slight; as, faint efforts; faint resistance.
5. n. The act of fainting.
6. n. rare The state of one who has fainted; a swoon.
7. v. intransitive To lose consciousness. Caused by a lack of oxygen or nutrients to the brain, usually as a result of a suddenly reduced blood flow (may be caused by emotional trauma, loss of blood or various medical conditions).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to swoon.
2. adj. Wanting in courage, spirit, or energy; timorous; cowardly; dejected; depressed.”
3. adj. Lacking distinctness; hardly perceptible; striking the senses feebly; not bright, or loud, or sharp, or forcible; weak.
4. adj. Performed, done, or acted, in a weak or feeble manner; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy; slight.
5. n. The act of fainting, or the state of one who has fainted; a swoon. [R.] See fainting, n.
6. v. To become weak or wanting in vigor; to grow feeble; to lose strength and color, and the control of the bodily or mental functions; to swoon; -- sometimes with away. See fainting, n.
7. v. To sink into dejection; to lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
8. v. To decay; to disappear; to vanish.
9. v. obsolete To cause to faint or become dispirited; to depress; to weaken.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. lacking strength or vigor
2. adj. lacking conviction or boldness or courage
3. adj. lacking clarity or distinctness
4. adj. weak and likely to lose consciousness
5. n. a spontaneous loss of consciousness caused by insufficient blood to the brain
6. adj. indistinctly understood or felt or perceived
7. adj. deficient in magnitude; barely perceptible; lacking clarity or brightness or loudness etc
8. v. pass out from weakness, physical or emotional distress due to a loss of blood supply to the brain