feign

Verb

Meaning

To give a mental existence to, as to something not real or actual; to imagine; to invent; hence, to pretend; to form and relate as if true.

To represent by a false appearance of; to pretend; to counterfeit; as, to feign a sickness.

To dissemble; to conceal.

Source: Webster's dictionary

Synonyms

affect assume simulate pretend sham dissemble stonewall bluff play front act stage make-believe adopt pose

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Antonyms

real actual visible admit revealing acknowledge

Show all antonyms

Hypernyms

act pretend dissemble misrepresent belie

Hyponyms

play bull mouth fake feint bullshit

Phrases with the word

feign illness feign illness to avoid work feign injury to avoid work feign death feign ignorance feign stupidity

Derivatives

feigned feigning

Examples

Something stopped me in school a little bit. Anything that I'm not interested in, I can't even feign interest. Quentin Tarantino

There rise her timeless capitals of empires daily born, whose plinths are laid at midnight and whose streets are packed at morn and here come tired youths and maids that feign to love or sin in tones like rusty razor blades to tunes like smitten tin. Rudyard Kipling

It is harder to hide the feelings we have than to feign the ones we do not have. François de La Rochefoucauld

I had to feign interest in all this nonsense until I could ask when I could come over and sit on his face. I didn't say that out loud, of course. I never say the things I really want to. If I did, I'd have no friends. Chelsea Handler

Feign death and the bull will leave you. Portuguese Proverb

There are not so many who must feign madness to survive. American Proverb

Close letter words and terms

Feigenbaum constant Feighner criterion Feight feign death feign ignorance feign illness