Meaning of Feint | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy.
   often
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.
   figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“In October, Friburg had been taken by a Feint of the Duke of Crequi, before the Duke of Lorrain cou'd come⟳ to relieve it; […]”

“Nothing could be more uncertain than the intentions of the French marshal [André Masséna], and Lord Wellington [Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington] felt, that by an incautious movement, his army must be seriously committed—Massena's retreat might only be a feint to draw⟳ the allies from their position—while by turning Monte Junta, he might make⟳ a sudden rush⟳ on Torres Vedras.”

“He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter.”

“It is also possible to deliver⟳ a compound riposte by using an indirect feint. The attacking fencer would be open⟳ to a compound riposte following a successful parry by their opponent.”

“[I]f your zeal slackens, how can one help⟳ thinking that Mr. Courtly's letter is but a feint to get⟳ off from a subject in which either your own⟳, or the private and base⟳ ends of others to whom you are partial, or those of whom you are afraid, would not endure a reformation?”

“If you had fallen up against him (as some of them did), and stood there; he would have⟳ made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would have⟳ been an affront to your understanding; […]”

“Receiving no reply⟳ at all here, from the thoughtful man whom he addressed, Mr. William approached him nearer, and made a feint of accidentally knocking the table with a decanter, to rouse him.”

“[...] the digestive organs of the whale are so inscrutably constructed by Divine Providence, that it is quite impossible for him to completely digest even a man’s arm? And he knows it too. So that what you take⟳ for the White Whale’s malice is only his awkwardness. For he never means to swallow⟳ a single limb; he only thinks to terrify by feints.”

“Toleration was just a feint to achieve⟳ the objective of the Catholic mission.”

CEFR level