feign

verb

ˈfān 

feigned; feigning; feigns

transitive verb

1

a

: to give a false appearance of : induce as a false impression

feign death

b

: to assert as if true : pretend

He feigned that he was not feeling well so that he could leave the party early.

2

archaic

a

: invent, imagine

b

: to give fictional representation to

3

obsolete : disguise, conceal

intransitive verb

: pretend, dissemble

He told the truth because he was no good at feigning.

feigner noun

Did you know?

The Shape of the History of Feign

Feign is all about faking it, but that hasn't always been so. An early meaning of the word is "to fashion, form, or shape." That meaning comes from its Latin source: the verb fingere. In time, people began fashioning feign to suggest the act of forming, or giving shape to, false appearances.

Synonyms

• act
• affect
• assume
• bluff
• counterfeit
• dissemble
• fake
• pass (for)
• pretend
• profess
• put on
• sham
• simulate

Choose the Right Synonym for feign

assume, affect, pretend, simulate, feign, counterfeit, sham mean to put on a false or deceptive appearance.

assume often implies a justifiable motive rather than an intent to deceive.

assumed an air of cheerfulness around the patients

affect implies making a false show of possessing, using, or feeling.

affected an interest in art

pretend implies an overt and sustained false appearance.

pretended that nothing had happened

simulate suggests a close imitation of the appearance of something.

cosmetics that simulate a suntan

feign implies more artful invention than pretend, less specific mimicry than simulate.

feigned sickness

counterfeit implies achieving the highest degree of verisimilitude of any of these words.

an actor counterfeiting drunkenness

sham implies an obvious falseness that fools only the gullible.

shammed a most unconvincing limp

Examples of feign in a Sentence

I wince, feigning interest in a TV Guide and mumbling a hello. —Douglas Coupland, Generation X, 1991

Success keeps her busy. "Relaxation?" she asks, feigning puzzlement. "What's that?" —Jennifer Johnston, New Woman, November 1990

… Brad would sometimes clown or feign clumsiness just to crack her composed expression with a blush or a disapproving frown. —John Updike, Trust Me, 1987

I would never feign illness just to get out of a test.

Recent Examples on the Web

To prove it, Crane feigns interest in the space, goes to see the studio and gets a lower rent price. —Erica Marrison, People.com, 17 Oct. 2024

The political appointee from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) who Morris did get on camera, Miller fanboy Scott Lloyd, can barely feign amnesia during his non-responses. —Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2024

Toxic leaders may feign understanding or sympathy, only to weaponize the emotions of their team members for their own benefit. —Benjamin Laker, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024

The engineer said ship management companies can feign ignorance about lapses in safety at sea and that, nine times out of ten, nothing bad ever happens because of it. —USA TODAY, 25 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English feynen, feignen "to make, fabricate, make a likeness of, dissemble, pretend to be," borrowed from Anglo-French feign-, stem of feindre, going back to Latin fingere "to mold, fashion, make a likeness of, pretend to be," going back to Indo-European *d^hi-n-ǵ^h- (whence also Old Irish con-utuinc "builds, constructs," Armenian dizanem "[I] heap up"), present tense derivative of *d^hei̯ǵ^h- "knead, shape," whence Gothic digan "to knead, form from clay," Old Church Slavic ziždǫ, zĭdati "to build," Lithuanian žiedžiù, žiẽsti "to form, shape (from clay)" (Balto-Slavic with metathesis of stop consonants), Armenian edēz "(s/he) heaped up," Tocharian B tsik- "fashion, shape, build," Sanskrit pari … déhat "will cover over, smear over"

Note: See also etymologies at dough, paradise, and thigmotropism.

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Kids Definition

feign

verb

ˈfān 

1

: to give a false appearance of : fake

feign illness

2

: to state as if true

feign an excuse