feint

feint

English

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from 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. (transitive, intransitive) To make a feint, or mock attack.
   • 1909, Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Quiller-Couch, St. Ives, Chapter 7:

     My assailant stood a little; in the thick darkness I could see him bob and sidle as though he were feinting at me for an advantageous onfall.

   • 1914, Booth Tarkington, Penrod Chapter 22

     when he passed other children on the street, he practised the habit of feinting a blow; then, as the victim dodged, he rasped out the triumphant horse-laugh which he gradually mastered to horrible perfection.

   • 1924, Harold Lamb, Forward

     I spurred on the Turani instead of pulling him in, and stood up in the saddle just as we came upon the two. By feinting a slash at one I made him throw up his saber to guard his head. Then, leaning down as the three ponies came together, I cut at the other’s neck, getting home over his blade. His mount reared and shelled him out of the saddle like a pea out of a pod.

   • 2013, Len Levinson, Meat Grinder Hill

     Gomez feinted with his knife and the other man darted backward. He feinted again and the man moved to the side. The man feinted but Gomez didn't budge; he was anxious to get it on.

Derived terms

• feinter

 

Translations

to make a counterfeit move to confuse an opponent

Armenian: խաբս տալ (xabs tal) Bulgarian: финтирам (fintiram) Chinese: Mandarin: 賣個破綻／卖个破绽 (zh) (mài ge pòzhàn) Cornish: fug m Dutch: please add this translation if you can Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: harhauttaa (fi) French: feinter (fr) German: fintieren Italian: please add this translation if you can Japanese: please add this translation if you can Maori: hoka, whakarehu, tautātete, whakatēteka, whakahopo (with a weapon) Portuguese: simular (pt), lançar um ataque simulado Romanian: fenta (ro) Russian: финти́ть (ru) impf (fintítʹ), хитри́ть (ru) impf (xitrítʹ), лука́вить (ru) impf (lukávitʹ) Spanish: fintar (es), fintear (es) Swedish: finta (sv) Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: feyk atmak

Adjective

feint (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) feigned; counterfeit.
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- Maori: whakahopo

Noun

feint (plural feints)

1. A movement made to confuse the opponent; a dummy.
2. Something feigned; a false or pretend appearance; a pretense or stratagem.
   • 1712 January 29 (Gregorian calendar)​, Joseph Addison; Richard Steele [et al.], “FRIDAY, January 18, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 286; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697:

     Mr. Courtly's letter is but a feint to get off from a subject […] .

   • 2014, Alastair Mann , James VII: Duke and King of Scots

     Toleration was just a feint to achieve the objective of the Catholic mission.

3. (fencing, boxing, war) An offensive movement resembling an attack in all but its continuance.
   • 1858, William Hamilton Maxwell, Flood & field; or, The recollections of a soldier of fortune

     Massena's retreat might only be a feint to draw the allies from their position

   • 1999, Allan Skipp, Handbook of Foil Fencing

     It is also possible to deliver a compound riposte by using an indirect feint. The attacking fencer would be open to a compound riposte following a successful parry by their opponent.

Translations

a movement made to confuse the opponent

Armenian: հնարք (hy) (hnarkʿ) Bulgarian: финт m (fint) Catalan: finta (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 假象 (zh) (jiǎxiàng), 疑陣／疑阵 (zh) (yízhèn) Dutch: schijnbeweging (nl) f Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: harhautus (fi) French: feinte (fr) f German: Finte (de) f Greek: αντιπερισπασμός (el) (antiperispasmós) 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: finta (pt) f, drible (pt) m Romanian: fentă (ro) f Russian: финт (ru) m (fint), притво́рство (ru) n (pritvórstvo) Spanish: amago (es) m, finta (es) f Swedish: fint (sv) c Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: feyk

Etymology 2

C19: Variant of faint.

Noun

feint (uncountable)

1. The narrowest rule used in the production of lined writing paper.

Anagrams

• Fenit

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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

Participle

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

1. past participle of feindre

Verb

feint

1. third-person singular present indicative of feindre

Further reading

• “feint”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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

Derived terms

• frijfeint

Further reading

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