feint
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: boxing
fencing
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
Etymology: The noun is borrowed from French feinte (“dummy, feint”), from feindre (“to fake, feign”), from Old French feindre, faindre, from Latin fingere, the present active infinitive of fingō (“to alter the truth to deceive, dissemble, feign, pretend; to fashion, form, shape”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* English feign, fiction, figment
* Italian finta
* Occitan fencha, fenha
* Old Spanish finta (modern Spanish finta (“dummy, feint”))
Inflected forms:
form: feints
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: feints
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: feinting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: feinted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: feinted
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy.
pos: noun
tags: often
examples: In October, Friburg had been taken by a Feint of the Duke of Crequi, before the Duke of Lorrain cou'd come to relieve it; […]
Nothing could be more uncertain than the intentions of the French marshal [André Masséna], and Lord Wellington [Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington] felt, that by an incautious movement, his army must be seriously committed—Massena's retreat might only be a feint to draw the allies from their position—while by turning Monte Junta, he might make a sudden rush on Torres Vedras.
gloss: A blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part.
pos: noun
examples: He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter.
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.
gloss: Something feigned; a false or pretend appearance; a pretence or stratagem.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: [I]f your zeal slackens, how can one help thinking that Mr. Courtly's letter is but a feint to get off from a subject in which either your own, or the private and base ends of others to whom you are partial, or those of whom you are afraid, would not endure a reformation?
If you had fallen up against him (as some of them did), and stood there; he would have made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would have been an affront to your understanding; […]
Receiving no reply at all here, from the thoughtful man whom he addressed, Mr. William approached him nearer, and made a feint of accidentally knocking the table with a decanter, to rouse him.
[...] the digestive organs of the whale are so inscrutably constructed by Divine Providence, that it is quite impossible for him to completely digest even a man’s arm? And he knows it too. So that what you take for the White Whale’s malice is only his awkwardness. For he never means to swallow a single limb; he only thinks to terrify by feints.
Toleration was just a feint to achieve the objective of the Catholic mission.
gloss: To direct (a blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack) on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Genevra scowled and said, "His word is wild, / But dastard treason feinteth such disorders: / Treason or witchcraft neither, undefiled, / A Christian court may cherish in its borders."
Even Penrod's walk was affected; he adopted a gait which was a kind of taunting swagger; and, 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.
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.
gloss: To direct a feint or mock attack against (someone).
pos: verb
tags: rare
transitive
examples: Feint him—use your legs! draw him about! he'll lose his wind then in no time, and you can go into him.
gloss: To make a feint or mock attack.
pos: verb
tags: also
intransitive
often
examples: Ben-Hur feinted with his right hand. The stranger warded, slightly advancing his left arm. Ere he could return to guard, Ben-Hur caught him by the wrist in a grip which years at the oar had made terrible as a vise.
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.
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.
gloss: Of an attack or offensive movement: directed toward a different part from the intended strike.
pos: adj
tags: also
not-comparable
often
gloss: Feigned, counterfeit, fake.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
obsolete
examples: We force ourselves to be hypocrites, and hide our wrongs from them; we speak of a bad father with false praises; we wear feint smiles over our tears and deceive our children—deceive them, do we?
Derived words: feinter
feinting
Translations: