feint
Americannoun
-
feints
plural
-
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)
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feints,
present (3rd person singular)
-
feinted,
past participle, past
-
feinting
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
feints,
present (3rd person singular)
-
feinted,
past participle, past
-
feinting
present participle
-
to make a feint at; deceive with a feint.
-
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 name is a feint: There’s nothing goth about his chipper electronic pop, which often feels tailor-made for DJ sets in exotic locations, a crowd swaying as the sun sinks in the background.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
The White House didn’t plan to disclose the feint, officials said, until the Washington Post revealed it and sparked a media frenzy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
There is no strict definition of a stutter, but under Fifa rules, a player is allowed to stop or feint during the run-up as long as they don't do it directly before kicking the ball.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
On a metatextual level, the show is itself a masterful feint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2024
He likes to feint, pretend his sword is going one way rather than another.
From "Black Brother, Black Brother" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
War is filled with flopping, feints and trickery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
An "inverted winger", he attacks from wide on the right flank but then cuts inside, using body feints and rapid shifts in pace to dribble past defenders and shoot with his stronger left foot.
From BBC ● May 22, 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
The film’s feints and twists are fabulous as they explore how the internet’s promise has soured.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026
The stride length, the quickness of the foot feints, all clearly revealed to his unfailing eye, made him reassess his second conclusion.
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
Elmas feinted past Mamadou Coulibaly on the left side of the area before curling into the far bottom corner.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 4, 2023
The fight begun with both athletes showing patience as Volkanovski feinted and switched stances, while Makhachev looked for openings.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2023
Juventus turned the match around completely two minutes later when Vlahović ran onto a through-ball and into the area and feinted his way past Inter defender Danilo D’Ambrosio.
From Seattle Times ● May 11, 2022
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
Charlie feinted toward me, and I snatched the hammer.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
The fight started with the Briton pushing forward, as he would throughout the following 25 minutes, feinting and landing leg kicks, while chants of "Colby, Colby" rung out around the arena.
From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2023
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
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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
