feint

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /feɪnt/
  • Rhymes: -eɪnt
  • Homophone: faint

Etymology

French feint (“pretended”), from Old French feindre ("to feign")

Verb

feint (third-person singular simple present feints, present participle feinting, simple past and past participle feinted)

1. To make a feint, or mock attack.

Adjective

feint (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Feigned; counterfeit.
   • John Locke

     Dressed up into any feint appearance of it.

2. (fencing, boxing, war) (of an attack) directed toward a different part from the intended strike

Noun

feint (plural feints)

1. A movement made to confuse the opponent, a dummy
2. That which is feigned; an assumed or false appearance; a pretense; a stratagem; a fetch.
3. (fencing, boxing, war) An offensive movement resembling an attack in all but its continuance
4. The narrowest rule used in the production of lined writing paper (C19: Variant of FAINT)

Translations

a movement made to confuse the opponent

• Bulgarian: финт (bg) (fint) m
• Dutch: schijnbeweging (nl)
• Italian: finta (it)

• Russian: финт (ru) (fint) m
• Spanish: amago (es) m, finta (es) f
• Swedish: fint (sv) c

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French

Verb

feint m (feminine feinte, masculine plural feints, feminine plural feintes)

1. Past participle of feindre
2. third-person singular present indicative of feindre

Anagrams

• fient