feint
Americannoun
-
a movement made in order to deceive an adversary; an attack aimed at one place or point merely as a distraction from the real place or point of attack.
military feints; the feints of a skilled fencer.
-
a feigned or assumed appearance.
His air of approval was a feint to conceal his real motives.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
-
to make a feint at; deceive with a feint.
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to make a false show of; simulate.
noun
-
a mock attack or movement designed to distract an adversary, as in a military manoeuvre or in boxing, fencing, etc
-
a misleading action or appearance
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
feintsimple
-
feintssimple
-
have feintedperfect
-
has feintedperfect
-
am feintingprogressive
-
are feintingprogressive
-
is feintingprogressive
-
have been feintingperfect progressive
-
has been feintingperfect progressive
Past
-
feintedsimple
-
had feintedperfect
-
was feintingprogressive
-
were feintingprogressive
-
had been feintingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of feint
First recorded in 1670–80; from French feinte, from Old French feinte “fabrication,” noun use of feminine of feint “pretended,” past participle of feindre; see origin at feign
Explanation
Did you ever tell your parents you were going off to school, grabbed your book bag, and headed out the door...only to spend the rest of the day hanging out with your friends? Well, that was a feint, a super sneaky move designed to fool someone. Although military and political tactics are big on feints, their most common use is probably in sports — particularly boxing, where opponents are continually trying to fake each other out. As in Dundee's account of an Ali-Frazier match: "Ali feinted with a jab, and Frazier threw one of his own, missing." Not to be confused with faint, meaning "weak or feeble." However, a feint can be deliberately faint, as Ali knew and Frazier found out when the real right hook made contact.
Vocabulary lists containing feint
The Lightning Thief
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Commonly Confused Words, List 1
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The Hobbit
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Danish director of “Drive” hasn’t made a feature film since “Neon Demon” premiered at Cannes in 2016 and this grim fairy tale feels more like a feint than a comeback.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
Hathaway fell for Paulo Garbisi's feint that opened space for Capuozzo to pop up from nowhere and tap down with a wonderful finish.
From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2025
It's a feint, an effort to scare his opponents into believing his ascension is unstoppable, so they stop fighting him.
From Salon ● Dec. 30, 2023
Lamm slipped in another feint, which was to raise the question of whether Greenblatt is sufficiently engaged with Jewishness to merit a defense from antisemitism.
From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2023
If Mance’s horn was just a feint, where is the true ; horn?
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
War is filled with flopping, feints and trickery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
He was just so skilful - it's the feints and rainbow flicks that are etched in your mind.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2026
It was the culmination of a series of feints and bluffs in the preceding hours and days as the former reality TV star kept the world guessing.
From Barron's ● Feb. 28, 2026
During the next round, he was spinning David around with his footwork, working feints into elaborate movement patterns to leave David confused.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2023
He made two half-hearted feints toward the basket, hoping to catch Ben off balance and get an unchallenged set shot.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
Kvaratskhelia feinted to run in behind, then dropped short, then looked to run in behind, dropped short again before eventually running in behind.
From BBC ● May 30, 2026
At the end of the first half, Brown feinted a drive that rocked Ute defender Both Gach off balance before stepping back for a contested 22-foot three-pointer that splashed through the net as time expired.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 2, 2022
Lang hammered his entrance like the first hard few drops of an incoming storm and just as quickly feinted into an airy, gentle touch, from the ground to the clouds in an instant.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 19, 2021
The battle on film was a sequence of explosive lunges: mauve, black, gold and scarlet feathers flying as the birds leapt, feinted and struck out with talons.
From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2021
Dorian feinted, but Chaol didn’t fall for it.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
Bud snaked his way inside, feinting in the middle distance and eating some shots on the way in — but nothing that rattled him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2023
They envision themselves bobbing and weaving, triangulating and feinting — filling the air with meaningless cliches so that no one knows where they stand and no one can hold them accountable.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2023
Harrison hitches his bespoke wagon to that star, and the resulting scandal shows how deftly Korelitz moves as a satirist, feinting in one direction and then delivering a knockout blow in the other.
From Washington Post ● May 31, 2022
Moore for a 10-yard score — a pass made possible by Newton stepping up in the pocket, feinting a scramble to draw in the safety to leave Moore open.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 21, 2021
Bull set him down and they pretended to box each other, weaving and feinting with exaggerated aggressiveness, cuffing each other on the head and punching each other on the shoulders.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
