feint

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“
When however the traveller shows fright, the feint is apt to turn out a fact.

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A feigned attack designed to draw defensive action away from an intended target.
  2. noun A deceptive action calculated to divert attention from one's real purpose. See Synonyms at wile.
  3. intransitive verb To make a feint.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • He swung his knife at her in counter-feint, and when the old male made the real attack, Maggot thrust the spear through its neck. —  F ;SF; - vol 103 issue 04-05 - October-November 2002
  • On one occasion a feint was accomplished by firing artillery and running continuous radio chatter as though the troops were making a landing, when in actuality they had remained in the boats. —  Brown Waters, Black Berets
  • This attack was intended only as a feint, and to distract the attention of the Afghans from the main attack.
  • A counter feint is a feint following the opponent's feint or following a parry of his attack and generally occurs in combined movements COMBINED MOVEMENTS 91. —  Infantry Drill Regulations, United States Army, 1911 Corrected to April 15, 1917 (Changes Nos. 1 to 19)
  • He took the north-west road to Syria as a feint, then swiftly turning, marched along the sea-shore route to Mecca, and the Beni Lahyan fled before him. —  Mahomet Founder of Islam
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

ruse ·  artifice ·  guile ·  ploy ·  stratagem ·  subterfuge ·  pretense ·  machination ·  hoax ·  dissimulation ·  prevarication ·  chicanery
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French feinte, from Old French, from past participle of feindre, to feign; see feign.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from French feinte (= Provencal fencha = Old Spanish Portuguese Italian finta), a feint, sham, pretense, feminine of feint, past participle of feindre, feign: see feign. For the equivalent noun in Middle English, see faintise.
  2. See faint, adjective
  3. from feint, n.
 

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/feɪnt/
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