feint.
A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy.
Meaning & usage
A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy.
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.
Something feigned; a false or pretend appearance; a pretence or stratagem.
Where this word comes from
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”))
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.
To direct a feint or mock attack against (someone).
To make a feint or mock attack.
Where this word comes from
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”))
Of an attack or offensive movement: directed toward a different part from the intended strike.
Feigned, counterfeit, fake.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French feint, the past participle of feindre (“to fake, feign”): see etymology 1.
Of lines printed on paper as a handwriting guide: not bold; faint, light; also, of such paper: ruled with faint lines of this sort.
Where this word comes from
A variant of faint (“barely perceptible; not bright, loud, or sharp”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.