Faint vs. Feint

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Grammarist

Feint is a pretended attack used to distract an enemy. In boxing, a feint may be a blow that provokes a defensive action to one part of the opponent’s body while the boxer delivers a more destructive punch to another part of the opponent’s body. A feint may be a fencing thrust that draws an opponent to protect one part of his body while the fencer delivers a fatal stroke to another part of the opponent’s body. In war, a feint is a troop maneuver that distracts the enemy from the real attack. Feint may also be used as a verb, meaning to make a feint.

Faint is used as a verb to mean to pass out or lose consciousness temporarily. As a noun, faint means a sudden loss of consciousness.  Faint, as an adjective, means dim or hardly perceptible, vague, slight, feeble, lacking enthusiasm or half-hearted.

Examples

In fact, a more accurate interpretation could be that the drop is a feint, setting up a foundation for the real move upwards. (Forbes)

Najib cannot continue to run and feint, but must take a stand to clear his name by opening his books to investigators – not to the ridiculous “special task force” of four Tan Sri subordinates, which has no credibility whatsoever, but to a Royal Commission of Inquiry of three Tuns – Mahathir, Abdullah and Musa Hitam – who are not beholden to him at all. (The Malaysia Chronicle)

Pacquiao and Mayweather will feint and thrust and pulp one another. (The New York Times)

Justin Rose hit an elderly spectator on the head with a wayward drive at the Scottish Open on Friday and the sight of the wound caused a 14-year-old boy to faint. (The Toronto Sun)

A homeless Filipino boy has been overwhelmed with aid after a heart-wrenching photo of him studying on the pavement and using faint light from a McDonald’s outlet went viral on the Internet. (The Rakyat Post)

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