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faint

[feynt]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

lacking brightness, vividness, clearness, loudness, strength, etc.: a faint light; a faint color; a faint sound.

feeble or slight: faint resistance; faint praise; a faint resemblance.

feeling weak, dizzy, or exhausted; about to lose consciousness: faint with hunger.

lacking courage; cowardly; timorous: Faint heart never won fair maid.

Law. unfounded: a faint action.

verb (used without object)

to lose consciousness temporarily.

to lose brightness.

Archaic. to grow weak; lose spirit or courage.

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Faint is always a great word to know.

So is manslaughter. Does it mean:

to state or declare under oath or affirmation, usually in court

the unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

noun

a temporary loss of consciousness resulting from a decreased flow of blood to the brain; a swoon: to fall into a faint.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French, past participle of faindre, variant of feindre to feign

Related forms

faint·er, noun

faint·ing·ly, adverb

faint·ish, adjective

faint·ish·ness, noun

faint·ly, adverb

EXPAND

faint·ness, noun

o·ver·faint, adjective

o·ver·faint·ly, adverb

o·ver·faint·ness, noun

un·faint·ing, adjective

un·faint·ly, adverb

COLLAPSE

Can be confused: fain, faint, feign, feint.

Synonyms
1. indistinct, ill-defined, dim, faded, dull, 2. faltering, irresolute, weak. 3. languid. 4. pusillanimous, fearful, timid, dastardly. 6. pass out, black out.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To faint

Example Sentences

Some patients may have chest pain or may faint or collapse.

In the faint predawn light, fallen leaves crunched underfoot.

Others offer the faint praise that he will be a better prime minister than opposition leader.

EXPAND

Some patients may have chest pain or may faint or collapse.

In the faint predawn light, fallen leaves crunched underfoot.

Others offer the faint praise that he will be a better prime minister than opposition leader.

The spectacle gives earthlings a rare glimpse of the corona, the scorching hot and faint outer atmosphere of the sun.

Beams of radio waves can induce auroralike light, but emissions have been too faint to detect with the naked eye.

Giant vegetable growing is not a hobby for the faint hearted.

Shaggy in his winter coat, the lead horse blazes a trail, his breath coming out in faint white puffs.

But some of them are also working out until they puke, faint or suffer permanent organ damage.

They are not for the faint of heart, especially when viewed online.

Academe will not be for the faint of heart in the years to come.

Film gets saturated, so the real difference in magnitude between bright and faint objects is lost.

These are really faint lights which many mistaken for light pollution from distant towns beyond their local horizon.

The paint itself glows a faint red when it's put under blue or ultraviolet light.

Maybe add some faint outlines of mountains on the horizon and a hooting gray owl for ambience.

Its faint spiciness comes from crushed coriander seeds and orange peel.

It was even possible to hear the faint gurgling of a small stream.

Russia has but a faint conception of law and justice.

His letters were all bad because he damned his former students with faint praise.

There are two good reasons to get excited about even faint signs of consumer optimism.

But the much smaller droplets in fog scatter light more, producing almost white bows sometimes tinged with faint color.

We know an awful lot about the big and bright things in the sky and precious little about the fleeting and faint things.

In the upper left of this photograph, faint billowing shapes can be seen in the outer regions of an elliptical galaxy.

The chant was a faint one, but not so much so as to go undetected.

One of my college professors made me faint with desire.

As the old saw has it, faint heart never won fair lady.

But often by that time the stars have become too faint to outshine the powerful quasar.

The second floor, once the main reception room of this wealthy merchant's home, reveals faint traces of its former glory.

The unusual eclipse perspective allowed scientists a glimpse at faint rings that had previously been unknown.

Rosenfeld began, in the faint wisp that is her voice.

Of course, it isn't for the kids, or the faint of heart.

She had no interest in the internet, and thus left a faint digital trace, if any.

It's hard to overstate the excitement scientists feel at the prospect of seeing that faint blue dot.

The watermark is a faint image visible on both sides of the bill.

The plates show a faint sense of motion, though hardly noticeable, in the horse's mane and tail.

Look for a faint star shining low in the western horizon within the first hour after local sunset.

The blazing blue star dominating this photo is not a white dwarf, but the faint white dot to the lower left is.

The demoted arms can be seen as faint trails between the major arms, which emanate from the ends of the orange central bar.

If these particles zip through water or ice, they leave faint blue trails of light that can be seen by sensitive photon detectors.

Stars were suns, rendered faint only by great distance.

The mood was light, but the meeting was not for the faint of heart.

Observatory uses a device called a coronagraph to block out the main body of the sun so scientists can see the faint corona.

It can pick up faint electrical signals from his brain and relay them to the computer.

The faint halo, also called a sun dog, isn't a real rainbow.

Adapting a graphic novel for the screen is not for the faint of heart.

Peden notes, you don't want to be damned with faint praise.

Conversely, fights might be started by putting people in the presence of a faint foul odour.

We can sense the universe's margins and feel the faint glow of its creation.

These so-called exoplanets are too faint for current telescopes to.

Fairly clean flavor with a faint chalky aftertaste.

Her ice-blue eyes trained on a single leaf, she was alert for the faint shiver.

The idea of tinkering with planetary controls is not for the faint of heart.

At one point a faint shadow glides over the bottom, then vanishes into a dark ravine.

Teaching at a cc is not for the faint of heart, but the possibilities for both students and professors are limitless.

Compared with the stars they orbit, exoplanets are faint and difficult to spot directly.

If you're swamped by urban light pollution, you'll miss the faint ones.

The cell membranes changed from green fluorescent to a faint red glow, which indicates damage.

These tiny pits found along a shark's head are used to detect faint electrical signals emitted by.

Using the pen on special paper with a faint dot design allows the instrument to track whatever the user writes.

Those in line who didn't turn away or faint saw a priestess catch the blood in a golden goblet for the priest to drink.

She saw a corneal laceration,a faint one and said it was probably due to that.

It was always a challenge and not for the faint at heart, to try and catch a handful to use later for fishing bait.

The air is pleasantly balmy as the first, faint light of day appears over the oaks and pines.

If you want to damn her with faint praise, you have done.

On either side of the dead-end track were two faint brush strokes from an owl's wings.

When peeling the tape that holds the film from the film spool, you often see faint sparks.

Faint lines and hatching patterns were incised into the plaster, creating two-tone designs.

But the pattern is faint or imperceptible to people.

Foreign interest is growing apace, but doing business is not for faint hearts.

Only the faint glow of earthshine filled the shadowy recesses.

Tsuchiya projects a faint image of this snarling guy into your left eye.

Nearly half the faint objects in the image are young star clusters that contain tens of thousands of new stars.

There was about him some of the salt tang of the nation's youth, a faint echo of the frontier.

Debugging custom chips is not for the faint of heart.

Astronomers spotted a faint glimmer of infrared light from.

The summary for the faint of heart: while the beard itself turned out just.

Kingon says with a faint smile, perhaps his favorite photograph.

These same people may then be familiar with the faint sound of a ticking time.

Once finished, the new telescope will allow astronomers to see faint objects clearer than ever before.

With even established hedge funds having trouble these days, investing in untested ones is not for the faint of heart.

The effect is handsome, but it cannot disguise the fact these are not paintings for the faint hearted.

The universe contains many more of these faint stars than bright, hot stars.

The conglomerate beds are normally graded with some faint horizontal stratification.

Wiseman allows himself one faint bit of editorializing.

Luckily, modern telescopes are able to study a sort of faint baby picture of the universe: the cosmic microwave background.

It's one of the fastest games afield, and it's not for the faint of heart.

Collecting patent models is not for the faint of heart or thin of wallet.

Still, scientists had only a faint idea of the monuments and artifacts hidden in these shallow waters.

People regularly faint and have to be taken down on stretchers.

It also is not for the faint of heart, so lets get the warnings out of the way.

They sense odors so faint that high-tech equipment can't measure them.

Except for a little tire noise, you don't hear anything but the faint whir of the motor.

Compared to the geologic record, the recent jottings of humankind in the plateau country seem faint indeed.

At the far end of the room, an eerie blue glow emanated along with the faint sound of techno music.

He felt increasingly faint because not enough oxygen was reaching his brain.

The prepared text described two braziers in the room casting a faint glow.

The lizard watched us leave with a faint look of bereavement.

There was a faint hiss, a crackle, and then a voice that called out from a patrol post hundreds of miles to the east.

The catacombs descend four dark, musty levels and are not for the faint of heart.

The trees in a forest painting sway in the wind as a faint white figure darts between their trunks.

Seven bright red handprints on the left balanced six faint yellow ones on the right.

Challen and the team know a record-breaking attempt is not for the faint of heart.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

faint (feɪnt)

—*adj*
1.	lacking clarity, brightness, volume, etc: a faint noise
2.	lacking conviction or force; weak: faint praise
3.	feeling dizzy or weak as if about to lose consciousness
4.	without boldness or courage; timid (esp in the combination faint-hearted)
5.	not the faintest, not the faintest idea, not the faintest notion no idea whatsoever: I haven't the faintest

—vb
6.	to lose consciousness, esp momentarily, as through weakness
7.	archaic, poetic or to fail or become weak, esp in hope or courage

—n
8.	Technical name: syncope a sudden spontaneous loss of consciousness, usually momentary, caused by an insufficient supply of blood to the brain

[C13: from Old French, from faindre to be idle]

'fainter

—n

'faintingly

—*adv*

'faintish

—*adj*

'faintishness

—n

'faintly

—*adv*

'faintness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

faint

c.1300, "wanting in courage," now mostly in faint-hearted (mid-15c.), from O.Fr. faint "soft, weak, sluggish," pp. of faindre "avoid one's duty by pretending" (see feign). Sense of "weak, feeble" is early 14c. Meaning "producing a feeble impression upon the senses" is from

EXPAND

1650s. The verb originally meant "to lose heart" (mid-14c.); sense of "swoon" is c.1400. Related: Fainted; fainting.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

faint (fānt)
n.
An abrupt, usually brief loss of consciousness; an attack of syncope. adj.
Extremely weak; threatened with syncope.

faint v.

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

faint

see damn with faint praise.