/feɪnt/
OriginFrom Middle English faynt, feynt (“weak; feeble”), from Old French faint, feint (“feigned; negligent; sluggish”), past participle of feindre, faindre (“to feign; sham; work negligently”), from Latin fingere (“to touch, handle, form, shape, frame, form in thought, imagine, conceive, contrive, devise, feign”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold”). Cognate with feign and fiction and more distantly dough.
- Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness
“I felt faint after my fifth gin and tonic.”
“He almost fell faint due to the hot climate.”
- Lacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected.
“Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.”
- Barely perceptible; not bright, or loud, or sharp.
“There was a faint red light in the distance.”
- Performed, done, or acted, weakly; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy.
“faint efforts”
“faint resistance”
“They damned the latest book with faint praise.”
- Slight; minimal.
“a faint chance”
“do you have the faintest understanding of what they mean?”
- archaicSickly, so as to make a person feel faint.
“Happening to pass a fruiterer’s on their way; the door of which was open, though the shop was by this time shut; one of them remarked how faint the peaches smelled.”
- The act of fainting, syncope.
“She suffered another faint.”
- rareThe state of one who has fainted; a swoon.
- intransitiveTo lose consciousness through a lack of oxygen or nutrients to the brain, usually as a result of suddenly reduced blood flow (may be caused by emotional trauma, loss of blood or various medical conditions).
“A fainting fit.”
“If I send them away fasting […] they will faint by the way.”
“But upon hearing the Honour which he intended her , she fainted away , and fell down as Dead at his Feet”
- intransitiveTo lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.”
- intransitiveTo decay; to disappear; to vanish.
“November 12, 1711, Alexander Pope, letter to Henry Cromwell
Gilded clouds, while we gaze upon them, faint before the eye.”
Formsfainter(comparative) · faintest(superlative) · feint(alternative) · faints(plural) · faints(present, singular, third-person) · fainting(participle, present) · fainted(participle, past) · fainted(past)