FEIGN

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does feign mean? 

• FEIGN (verb)
  The verb FEIGN has 2 senses:

1. make believe with the intent to deceive

2. make a pretence of

  Familiarity information: FEIGN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FEIGN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they feign    ... he / she / it feigns   
Past simple: feigned   
Past participle: feigned   
-ing form: feigning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make believe with the intent to deceive

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

affect; dissemble; feign; pretend; sham

Context example:

He shammed a headache

Hypernyms (to "feign" is one way to...):

belie; misrepresent (represent falsely)

Verb group:

make; make believe; pretend (represent fictitiously, as in a play, or pretend to be or act like)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "feign"):

play possum (to pretend to be dead)

take a dive (pretend to be knocked out, as of a boxer)

bull; bullshit; fake; talk through one's hat (speak insincerely or without regard for facts or truths)

mouth (articulate silently; form words with the lips only)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Derivation:

feigning (pretending with intention to deceive)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a pretence of

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

assume; feign; sham; simulate

Context example:

he feigned sleep

Hypernyms (to "feign" is one way to...):

act; dissemble; pretend (behave unnaturally or affectedly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "feign"):

play (pretend to be somebody in the framework of a game or playful activity)

feint (deceive by a mock action)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

feigning (the act of giving a false appearance)

 Context examples 

But he was consumed with indignation, real or feigned.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

And as Buck understood the oaths to be love words, so the man understood this feigned bite for a caress.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Had he feigned a regard for her which he did not feel?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Five hundred paces from the English the two great bodies of horse crossed each other, and, sweeping round in a curve, retired in feigned confusion towards their centre.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He watched and waited, until he feigned a wild rush, which he stopped midway, for he had seen the glint of metal.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Messner made a well-feigned gesture of helplessness. "I really don't know. It is one of those impossible situations against which there can be no provision."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Her triumph in this connexion with my work, and her delight when I wanted a new pen—which I very often feigned to do—suggested to me a new way of pleasing my child-wife.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I knew gipsies and fortune-tellers did not express themselves as this seeming old woman had expressed herself; besides I had noted her feigned voice, her anxiety to conceal her features.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mrs. Weston was acting no part, feigning no feelings in all that she said to him in favour of the event.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

In return he feigned anger, bristling and growling ferociously, and clipping his teeth together in snaps that had all the seeming of deadly intention.

(White Fang, by Jack London)