Meaning

(often military) A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy..

Definitions by Sense

1. (often military) A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy.
2. (boxing, fencing) 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.
3. (figuratively) Something feigned; a false or pretend appearance; a pretence or stratagem.
4. 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.
5. To direct a feint or mock attack against (someone).
6. (intransitive, boxing, fencing, also often military) To make a feint or mock attack.
7. (boxing, fencing, also often military) Of an attack or offensive movement: directed toward a different part from the intended strike.
8. (obsolete) Feigned, counterfeit, fake.

Example Sentences

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; […]

Nothing could be more uncertain than the intentions of the French marshal [André Masséna], and Lord Wellington [Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington] felt, that by an incautious movement, his army must be seriously committed—Massena's retreat might only be a feint to draw the allies from their position—while by turning Monte Junta, he might make a sudden rush on Torres Vedras.

He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter.

It is also possible to deliver a compound riposte by using an indirect feint. The attacking fencer would be open to a compound riposte following a successful parry by their opponent.

[I]f your zeal slackens, how can one help thinking that Mr. Courtly's letter is but a feint to get off from a subject in which either your own, or the private and base ends of others to whom you are partial, or those of whom you are afraid, would not endure a reformation?

If you had fallen up against him (as some of them did), and stood there; he would have made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would have been an affront to your understanding; […]

Receiving no reply at all here, from the thoughtful man whom he addressed, Mr. William approached him nearer, and made a feint of accidentally knocking the table with a decanter, to rouse him.

Word Forms

• feints
• feinting
• feinted

Synonyms for feint

Related Words

When Should You Use Feint?

Use feint when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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