feign

Use feign in a sentence

A little girl feigns illness.

verb

To feign is defined as to make up a story or act in a way that you don't feel.

An example of to feign is to seem like you’re sick to get out of going to school.

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MLA Style

"feign." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 13 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Feign>.

APA Style

feign. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Feign

feign

Obs. to form; shape
to make up (a story, excuse, etc.); invent; fabricate
to make a false show of; pretend; imitate; simulate
Archaic to imagine

Origin of feign

Middle English feinen from Old French feindre (prp. feignant) from Classical Latin fingere, to touch, handle, shape: see figure

to pretend; dissemble

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"feign." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 13 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Feign>.

APA Style

feign. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Feign

feign

verb

feigned, feign·ing, feigns

verb

transitive

a. To give a false appearance of: feign sleep.
b. To represent falsely; pretend to: feign authorship of a novel.
To imitate so as to deceive: feign another's voice.
To fabricate: feigned an excuse.
Archaic To invent or imagine.

verb

intransitive

To pretend; dissemble.

Origin of feign

Middle English feinen from Old French feindre from Latin fingere to shape, form ; see dheigh- in Indo-European roots.

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"feign." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 13 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Feign>.

APA Style

feign. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Feign

Verb

(third-person singular simple present feigns, present participle feigning, simple past and past participle feigned)

To make a false copy or version of; to counterfeit.
The pupil feigned sickness on the day of his exam.
They feigned her signature on the cheque.
To imagine; to invent; to pretend.
He feigned that he had gone home at the appointed time.
To make an action as if doing one thing, but actually doing another, for example to trick an opponent.
To hide or conceal.
Jessica feigned the fact that she had not done her homework.

Origin

From Middle English, from Old French feindre (“to pretend”), from Latin fingere (“to form, shape, invent”).

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.