feign
VerbUS[feyn]/feɪn/1 syllable
Open English WordNet
Verb (2)feigned, feigning
- make believe with the intent to deceive“He feigned that he was ill”“He shammed a headache”Synonyms: shampretendaffectdissembleMore general misrepresent, belieMore specific talk through one's hat, mouth, play possum, take a diveSimilar make, pretend
- make a pretence of“She assumed indifference, even though she was seething with anger”“he feigned sleep”Synonyms: simulateassumeshamMore general dissemble, pretendMore specific play, feint
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Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Feign transitive verb [past tense & past participle Feigned; present participle & verbal noun Feigning.]
Origin: OE. feinen, F. feindre (p. pr. feignant), fr. L. fingere; akin to L. figura figure,and E. dough. See Dough, and cf. Figure, Faint, Effigy, Fiction.
1. To give a mental existence to, as to something not real or actual; to imagine; to invent; hence, to pretend; to form and relate as if true.
There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.— Neh. vi. 8.
The poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods.— William Shakespeare
2. To represent by a false appearance of; to pretend; to counterfeit; as, to feign a sickness. William Shakespeare
3. To dissemble; to conceal. obsolete Edmund Spenser
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54