Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A military attack or maneuver that is meant to divert attention away from a planned point of attack.
- noun A body movement that is intended to divert another's attention, often by being deliberately left uncompleted.
- noun A deceptive action calculated to divert attention from one's real purpose. synonym: wile.
- intransitive verb To make a feint.
- intransitive verb To deceive with a feint.
- intransitive verb To do or perform as a feint.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make a feint; make a pretended blow, thrust, or attack at one point when another is intended to be struck, in order to throw an antagonist off his guard.
- Counterfeit; seeming; feigned: same as
faint , 1. - Same as
faint , 2. - noun plural See
faint , n., 2. - noun An assumed or false appearance, or simulation; a pretense of doing something not really done.
- noun A movement made with the object of deceiving an adversary or throwing him off his guard; an appearance of aiming at one part or point when another is the real object of attack, as in boxing, fencing, battle, or a contest of any kind; a mock attack.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To make a feint, or mock attack.
- adjective obsolete Feigned; counterfeit.
- noun That which is feigned; an assumed or false appearance; a pretense; a stratagem; a fetch.
- noun A mock blow or attack on one part when another part is intended to be struck; -- said of certain movements in fencing, boxing, war, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To make a feint, or mock attack.
- adjective obsolete Feigned; counterfeit.
- adjective fencing, boxing, war (of an attack) directed toward a different part from the intended strike
- noun A movement made to confuse the opponent, a
dummy - noun That which is feigned; an assumed or false appearance; a pretense; a stratagem; a fetch.
- noun fencing, boxing, war An offensive movement resembling an attack in all but its continuance
- noun The narrowest rule used in the production of lined writing paper (C19: Variant of FAINT)
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any distracting or deceptive maneuver (as a mock attack)
- verb deceive by a mock action
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Anyway, this is probably the closest to "classical" rag style that I've ever gotten, the D strain feint towards the Neapolitan notwithstanding.
"In Paris they call it American Music" Matthew Guerrieri 2009
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Anyway, this is probably the closest to "classical" rag style that I've ever gotten, the D strain feint towards the Neapolitan notwithstanding.
Archive 2009-01-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2009
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Turns out, "Choral" is a record label feint, a sonorous if deceptive introduction to the New York duo that was never intended to represent their oeuvre.
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Have the dumb Democrats, who think that just because the United States established war policies at the Nuremburg Trials, they must follow them; ever heard of the boxing technique called a feint punch or the legendary chess move called the "ghost knight gambit"?
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But there one name that make the left-wing go crazy and feint, which is a good signal:
Pajamas Media Mike McNally 2010
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But there one name that make the left-wing go crazy and feint, which is a good signal:
Pajamas Media Mike McNally 2010
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Have the dumb Democrats, who think that just because the United States established war policies at the Nuremburg Trials, they must follow them; ever heard of the boxing technique called a feint punch or the legendary chess move called the "ghost knight gambit"?
The Smirking Chimp - News And Commentary from the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Bob Patterson 2009
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Of course, I answered him that I would make the "feint," regardless of public clamor at a distance, and I did make it most effectually; using all the old boats I could get about Milliken's Bend and the mouth of the Yazoo, but taking only ten small regiments, selected out of Blair's division, to make a show of force.
Memoirs of the Union's Three Great Civil War Generals David Widger
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Bethlehem saw a "feint" on the part of St. Paul in the disputed passage:
Saint Augustin Louis Bertrand 1903
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This "feint," however, was only made in order to divert our attention, while Buller was concentrating his troops and guns on Spion Kop.
My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War P. [Illustrator] Van Breda 1892
lweber5@scf.edu commented on the word feint
The feints of a skilled fencer. -Websters Dictionary pg.29
September 24, 2010