Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Related Searches
on Ask.com
Synonyms
Nearby Entries
feign - 4 dictionary results

feign

  [feyn]
Use feign in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to represent fictitiously; put on an appearance of: to feign sickness.
2. to invent fictitiously or deceptively, as a story or an excuse.
3. to imitate deceptively: to feign another's voice.
–verb (used without object)
4. to make believe; pretend: She's only feigning, she isn't really ill.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME fei(g)nen < OF feign-, present s. of feindre < L fingere to shape, invent, feign

Related forms:
feigner, noun
feign⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
4. See pretend.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To feign
feign   (fān)   
v.   feigned, feign·ing, feigns

v.   tr.
    1. To give a false appearance of: feign sleep.
    2. To represent falsely; pretend to: feign authorship of a novel.
  2. To imitate so as to deceive: feign another's voice.
  3. To fabricate: feigned an excuse.
  4. Archaic To invent or imagine.
v.   intr.
To pretend; dissemble.

[Middle English feinen, from Old French feindre, from Latin fingere, to shape, form; see dheigh- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Feign

Feign\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Feigned; p. pr. & vb. n. Feigning.] [OE. feinen, F. feindre (p. pr. feignant), fr. L. fingere; akin to L. figura figure,and E. dough. See Dough, and cf. Figure, Faint, Effigy, Fiction.]

1. To give a mental existence to, as to something not real or actual; to imagine; to invent; hence, to pretend; to form and relate as if true.

There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart. --Neh. vi. 8.

The poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods. --Shak.

2. To represent by a false appearance of; to pretend; to counterfeit; as, to feign a sickness. --Shak.

3. To dissemble; to conceal. [Obs.] --Spenser.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source
Language Translation for : feign
Spanish: fingir,
German: heucheln,
Japanese: ～のふりをする
More Translations »

feign 
1300, from O.Fr. feign-, pres. stem of feindre "pretend, shirk," from L. fingere "devise, fabricate," originally "to shape, invent, to form," from PIE base *dheigh- "to form, shape."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Search another word or see feign on Thesaurus | Reference