Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To give a false appearance of: feign sleep.
- v. To represent falsely; pretend to: feign authorship of a novel.
- v. To imitate so as to deceive: feign another's voice.
- v. To fabricate: feigned an excuse.
- v. Archaic To invent or imagine.
- v. To pretend; dissemble.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To invent or imagine; utter, relate, or represent falsely or deceitfully.
- To make a false appearance of; counterfeit; simulate; pretend: as, to feign death.
- To dissemble; disguise; conceal.
- Reflexively, to show a sudden weakness; become weak or faint.
- Synonyms To affect, simulate, profess.
- To make believe; practise dissimulation or false representation; dissemble.
- To sing with a low voice.
- n. Dissimulation; deception; falsehood.
Wiktionary
- v. To represent by a false appearance of; to pretend; to counterfeit.
- v. To give a mental existence to something that is not real or actual; to imagine; to invent; to pretend; to form and relate as if true.
- v. To dissemble; to conceal.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To give a mental existence to, as to something not real or actual; to imagine; to invent; hence, to pretend; to form and relate as if true.
- v. To represent by a false appearance of; to pretend; to counterfeit.
- v. obsolete To dissemble; to conceal.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make a pretence of
- v. make believe with the intent to deceive
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French feindre ("to pretend"), from Latin fingere ("to form, shape, invent"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English feinen, from Old French feindre, from Latin fingere, to shape, form; see dheigh- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But there is a certain romantic senseless kind of love, such as poets sometimes celebrate, and men and women feign, which is a legitimate target for ridicule.”
“To them, therefore, I had to feign feigning: I had to feign, that is, that I was feigning to keep their confidence, but that in reality that I was betraying it; while to Mr. Chiffinch I had to disclose these precious secrets not as true but as false, and conjecture with him what was the truth.”
“Foerster reported that employers often described the Italian worker as “lazy, shirking, tricky, a time server” and complained that Italians were known—just as slaves were once known—to “feign sickness in order not to have to work in bad weather.””
“She grew excited as she developed the plan, and with my heart sinking I had to feign unbounded gladness and enthusiasm at this solution of my difficulties.”
“I tried my best, -- I thought I could do better, -- but I cannot feign what I do not feel.”
“It was almost a prayer, but a prayer that included a thousand meanings Daylight strove to feign sheepishness, but his heart was singing too wild a song for mere playfulness.”
“But when he turned him around and started forward, Bob proceeded to feign fright at trees, cows, bushes, Wolf, his own shadow -- in short, at every ridiculously conceivable object.”
“Or he might rise up slowly and carelessly, and feign casually to discover the thing that breathed at his back.”
“To cut a prolonged story short, Lois tries to appreciate Clark for saving her, Clark den! ies, as well as a feign phone call from Chloe masquerading as a Blur throws Lois into utter confusion once again.”
“On the subsequent play, the Nova reserve would bite upon the run feign right, as great as slip trying to recover, though would remove containment to Kackert as he would measure starting around the left finish from twelve yards out t!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘feign’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 319 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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EN - archaic words
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 328 more...
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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 11250 more...
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 165 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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goodkitten's list
there is going to be a lot of words...
flammivomous, pep, electrolyzation, research, constrain, why, refrigerator, invisible, windblown, curate's egg, echoism, drumble and 103 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 569 more...
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Breaking free from "I before E"
Words that have an I after an E after a letter that's not C.
sheik, seize, weird, foreign, caffeine, apartheid, deity, heifer, leisure, being, either, height and 30 more...
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utopia
Words used in the book utopia by sir thomas more
credence, proverb, provost, dissimulation, espy, neologism, vouchsafe, liberality, weal, inquisitive, assentation, verily and 21 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for feign.
dailyword This word was on my Word Of The Day app on my Nook Color once. Jul 24, 2012
brtom Lady Sneerwell. The paragraphs, you say, Mr. Snake, were all inserted?
Snake. They were, madam; and, as I copied them myself in a feigned hand, there can be no suspicion whence they came.
Sheridan, School for Scandal Jan 5, 2008