feint

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feɪ̯nt/
  • Rhymes: -eɪnt
  • Homophone: faint

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.

Translations

to make a counterfeit move to confuse an opponent

• Armenian: խաբս տալ (xabs tal)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 賣個破綻／卖个破绽 (zh), 卖个破绽 (zh) (mài ge pòzhàn)

• Finnish: harhauttaa (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: feinter (fr)
• Maori: hoka, whakarehu, tautātete, whakatēteka, whakahopo (with a weapon)
• Russian: финти́ть (ru) impf (fintítʹ), хитри́ть (ru) impf (xitrítʹ), лука́вить (ru) impf (lukávitʹ)
• Spanish: fintar (es), fintear (es)
• Swedish: finta (sv)

Adjective

feint (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Feigned; counterfeit.
   • (Can we date this quote by John Locke and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Dressed up into any feint appearance of it.

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

Translations

to attack a different part of the body form that apparently indicated

• Finnish: harhautus-
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: whakahopo

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 or stratagem.
   • Spectator

     Courtley's letter is but a feint to get off.

4. (fencing, boxing, war) An offensive movement resembling an attack in all but its continuance
5. The narrowest rule used in the production of lined writing paper (C19: Variant of FAINT)

Translations

a movement made to confuse the opponent

• Armenian: հնարք (hy) (hnarkʻ)
• Bulgarian: финт m (fint)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 假象 (zh) (jiǎxiàng), 疑陣／疑阵 (zh), 疑阵 (zh) (yízhèn)

• Dutch: schijnbeweging (nl) f
• Finnish: harhautus (fi)
• French: feinte (fr) f
• German: Finte (de) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: elterelő hadművelet (hu), csel (hu), hadicsel (hu), színlelt támadás
• Irish: céim bhréige f
• Italian: finta (it)
• Japanese: フェイント (feinto)
• Maori: tākiri, ohiti, ohitu
• Portuguese: drible (pt)
• Russian: финт (ru) m (fint), притво́рство (ru) n (pritvórstvo)
• Spanish: amago (es) m, finta (es) f
• Swedish: fint (sv) c

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French

Etymology

Past participle of feindre; from Old French feint, from Latin fictus, probably through the Vulgar Latin form *finctus, with a nasal infix. Compare Italian finto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɛ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ̃

Verb

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

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

Anagrams

• fient

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West Frisian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

feint c (plural feinten, diminutive feintsje)

1. young man
2. boy
3. boyfriend

   Coordinate term: faam

Further reading

• “feint”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011