feint means A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy. It carries an Arena rating of 1846, earned across 111 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, feint ranks #295 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #415 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #917 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,159 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
feint is pronounced /feɪnt/.
Why “feint” is a great word
FEINT — [Noun, Verb] A deceptive movement or attack designed to distract an opponent from the real point of assault. From the French feinte ("dummy, feint"), from feindre ("to fake, feign"), from the Old French feindre, faindre, from the Latin fingere ("to fashion, form; to dissemble, feign"). Unlike a "ruse," a broader stratagem of cunning, or a "bluff," a show of false confidence to intimidate, a feint is a kinetic lie, a physical fiction launched to create an opening. It is the boxer's jab that pulls a guard low before the true cross arrives, the fencer's lunge that draws a parry to the wrong line, or the quarterback's eyes that sell a pass to the flat just before the ball streaks down the sideline—a small, necessary dishonesty performed by the body, proving that truth in conflict is often a matter of timing.
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from French feinte (“dummy, feint”), from feindre (“to fake, feign”), from Old French feindre, faindre, from Latin fingere, the present active infinitive of fingō (“to alter the truth to deceive, dissemble, feign, pretend; to fashion, form, shape”). The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * English feign, fiction, figment * Italian finta * Occitan fencha, fenha * Old Spanish finta (modern Spanish finta (“dummy, feint”))
noun
- A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy.e.g.“In October, Friburg had been taken by a Feint of the Duke of Crequi, before the Duke of Lorrain cou'd come to relieve it; […]” — 1683, William Temple, “Memoirs of what Pass’d in Christendom, from the War Begun 1672, to the Peace Concluded 1679. Chapter III.”, in The Works of Sir William Temple, […], volume I, London: […] J. Rou
- A blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part.
- Something feigned; a false or pretend appearance; a pretence or stratagem.
verb
- To direct (a blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack) on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part.e.g.“Genevra scowled and said, "His word is wild, / But dastard treason feinteth such disorders: / Treason or witchcraft neither, undefiled, / A Christian court may cherish in its borders."” — 1882, T. Alderson Wilson, “Lanval”, in Perseus and Other Essays in Verse, London: Ranken and Co., […], →OCLC, page 74:
- To direct a feint or mock attack against (someone).e.g.“Feint him—use your legs! draw him about! he'll lose his wind then in no time, and you can go into him.” — 1857, [Thomas Hughes], “The Fight”, in Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, part II, page 323:
- To make a feint or mock attack.
adj
- Of an attack or offensive movement: directed toward a different part from the intended strike.
- Feigned, counterfeit, fake.e.g.“We force ourselves to be hypocrites, and hide our wrongs from them; we speak of a bad father with false praises; we wear feint smiles over our tears and deceive our children—deceive them, do we?” — 1855, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Contains Two or Three Acts of a Little Comedy”, in The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume II, London: Bradbury and
- Of lines printed on paper as a handwriting guide: not bold; faint, light; also, of such paper: ruled with faint lines of this sort.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.