Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state or condition of being faint; defect of strength; feebleness; deficiency of force, brightness, vividness, distinctness, or the like; want of vigor, energy, or heartiness; timorousness; dejection; irresolution.
Wiktionary
- n. The property of being or feeling faint.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state of being faint; loss of strength, or of consciousness, and self-control.
- n. Want of vigor or energy.
- n. Feebleness, as of color or light; lack of distinctness.
- n. Faint-heartedness; timorousness; dejection.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a feeling of faintness and of being ready to swoon
- n. the trait of lacking boldness and courage
- n. the property of being without strength
- n. barely audible
- n. the quality of being dim or lacking contrast
Etymologies
- faint + -ness (Wiktionary)
Examples
“When she asperged the warm water with cologne, -- it was her secret delight and greatest effort of economy to buy this cologne, -- she always had one little moment of what she called faintness -- that faintness which had veiled her eyes, and chained her hands, and stilled her throbbing bosom, when as a bride she came from the church with him.”
“His hands and feet were bound with iron: but his head, owing to faintness from the wounds he had received at Lumloch, was so bent down on his breast as he reclined on the boat, that I could not then see his face.”
“I told you to wait outside, sir,' he said with exasperation, stating clearly that my faintness was my own fault.”
In The Frame
“As for a temporary faintness, that is by no means outside our experience.”
“The sense of extension may be ranked amongst these appetites, since the deficiency of its object gives disagreeable sensation; when this happens in the arterial system, it is called faintness, and seems to bear some analogy to hunger and to cold; which like it are attended with emptiness of a part of the vascular system.”
“Mr Witherden, sir, a kind of faintness is upon my spirits — if you would do me the favour to ring the bell and order up a glass of something warm and spicy, I shall, notwithstanding what has passed, have a melancholy pleasure in drinking your good health.”
“Maybe it was the words, or the sudden wash of feeling, the sadness that came over me like a kind of faintness, that made me yearn forward as I said those last words, and meant them with all my heart even as I felt the metal of that crowbar in my hand, I loved you, too,”
Black and Blue
“Only for an immediate and transitory need, such as faintness or shock, is the quickly passing stimulating power of alcohol useful; and even for such purposes other stimulants are more valuable.”
“A trembling like that of faintness which is fought off by an effort of will ran over her, and he watched the pale, unsteady quiver of her eyelids.”
“Assyria (Re 17: 15). fainted -- literally, were "faintness" (itself); more forcible than the verb.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘faintness’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Brochettes of Random Palavery
Another of my random palavery lists for words or phrases that haven't yet found a place in one or more of my other lists.
nonexclusivity, adaptationist, paxillin, adduct, unblushingly cribbed, ptomaïne, microsievert, millisievert, too big to jail, tastemaker, tinsmithing, Nimzo-Indian and 1616 more...
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Quiet Alternatives
Quiet
tacit, taciturn, still, hushed, dampen, soft pedal, clammed up, pipe down, hush-hush, shush, muffled, toned down and 34 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for faintness.
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