feign
/feɪn/ verb C2- To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate. · The pupil feigned sickness on the day of his exam.· They feigned her signature on the cheque.
- To imagine; to invent; to pretend to do something. · He feigned that he had gone home at the appointed time.
- To make an action as if doing one thing, but actually doing another, for example to trick an opponent; to feint.
He/she/it feigns · Past feigned · Past participle feigned · -ing form feigning
Verb forms
- Base form
- feign
- He/she/it
- feigns
- Past
- feigned
- Past participle
- feigned
- -ing form
- feigning
From the library
The other, seeing that he must be attacked, fell flat on the ground, and when the Bear came up and felt him with his snout, and smelt him all over, he held his breath, and feigned the appearance of death as much as he could.
When night came she went forth with silent foot and obtained food for herself and her kittens, but feigning to be afraid, she kept a lookout all through the day.
Matthew had sheepishly unfolded the dress from its paper swathings and held it out with a deprecatory glance at Marilla, who feigned to be contemptuously filling the teapot, but nevertheless watched the scene out of the corner of her eye with a rather interested air.
“Because in 1807 I dreamed of the very plan Napoleon tried to realize in 1811; because, like Machiavelli, I desired to alter the political face of Italy, and instead of allowing it to be split up into a quantity of petty principalities, each held by some weak or tyrannical ruler, I sought to form one large, compact, and powerful empire; and, lastly, because I fancied I had found my Cæsar Borgia in a crowned simpleton, who feigned to enter into my views only to betray me.
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