feint

Meanings

1. A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy.
2. 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. Something feigned; a false or pretend appearance; a pretence or stratagem.

1. 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.
2. To direct a feint or mock attack against (someone).
3. To make a feint or mock attack.

1. Of an attack or offensive movement: directed toward a different part from the intended strike.
2. Feigned, counterfeit, fake.

1. Of lines printed on paper as a handwriting guide: not bold; faint, light; also, of such paper: ruled with faint lines of this sort.

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”))