feign, sham, pretend, affect, dissemble
(verb) make believe with the intent to deceive; “He feigned that he was ill”; “He shammed a headache”
simulate, assume, sham, feign
(verb) make a pretence of; “She assumed indifference, even though she was seething with anger”; “he feigned sleep”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
feign (third-person singular simple present feigns, present participle feigning, simple past and past participle feigned)
To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.
To imagine; to invent; to pretend.
To make an action as if doing one thing, but actually doing another, for example to trick an opponent.
To hide or conceal.
• (represent by a false appearance): front, put on airs
• See deceive
Source: Wiktionary
Feign, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Feigned; p. pr. & vb. n. Feigning.] Etym: [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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
17 June 2025
(adjective) having deserted a cause or principle; “some provinces had proved recreant”; “renegade supporters of the usurper”
Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.
