Meaning & use
feign
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Meaning
verbtransitiveformal
To pretend to have a feeling, illness or state that you do not really have, in order to fool someone.
Grammar: Takes an object: feign ignorance.
Patterns
- feign something
- feign to be something
He feigned surprise when the guests shouted happy birthday.
The student feigned illness to avoid the test.
She feigned sleep so that her brother would leave the room.
Word forms
| third person singular | feigns |
|---|---|
| past tense | feigned |
| past participle | feigned |
| -ing form | feigning |
Common combinations
- feign ignorance
- The clerk feigned ignorance when asked about the missing file.
- feign illness
- Some children feign illness to stay home.
- feign surprise
- Everyone had to feign surprise at the party.
- feign interest
- He feigned interest in the long story.
- feign death
- Some animals feign death when attacked.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pretend
- Pretend is the everyday word and also covers games and make-believe, while feign suggests a deliberate effort to deceive.
- fake
- Fake is informal and works for objects and actions, but feign is limited mostly to feelings, illness or ignorance.
- simulate
- Simulate suggests copying a process or condition for testing or realism rather than to cheat people.
- affect
- Affect is formal and describes putting on a manner or feeling, such as an accent, and is less clearly deceptive.
Word family
Commonly confused: feign or feint? feign or faint?
feign vs feint
A feint is a misleading move, as in boxing or fencing, and it sounds like faint, while feign is the verb for pretending.
feign vs faint
Faint means weak or slight, or to lose consciousness, and is unrelated to feign even though people mix them up in sound.
Practice
Which sentence correctly uses feign?
Choose one answer.
Feign means to pretend, so only the first sentence fits: the headache is not real. In the others the pain is genuine, which needs a word like suffered from.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “feign”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.