FEIGN

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


Etymology

Verb

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.

Synonyms

• (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



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Word of the Day

25 March 2025

IMMOBILIZATION

(noun) fixation (as by a plaster cast) of a body part in order to promote proper healing; “immobilization of the injured knee was necessary”


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Coffee Trivia

Coffee has initially been a food – chewed, not sipped. Early African tribes consume coffee by grinding the berries together, adding some animal fat, and rolling the treats into tiny edible energy balls.

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