- to put on a show of (a quality or emotion); pretend: to feign innocence
- (transitive) to make up; invent: to feign an excuse
- (transitive) to copy; imitate
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
feigned
(fānd),USA pronunciation adj.
feign•ed•ly
(fā′nid lē),USA pronunciation adv.
feign′ed•ness, n.
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026- pretended; sham;
counterfeit:feigned enthusiasm. - assumed;
fictitious:a feigned name. - disguised:a feigned voice.
- 1325–75; Middle English; see feign, -ed2
feign /feɪn/USA pronunciation
v. [~ + object]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- to pretend;
put on an appearance of:to feign sickness.
feign
(fān),USA pronunciation v.t.
v.i.
feign′er, n.
feign′ing•ly, adv.
- to represent fictitiously;
put on an appearance of:to feign sickness. - to invent fictitiously or deceptively, as a story or an excuse.
- to imitate deceptively:to feign another's voice.
v.i.
- to make believe;
pretend:She's only feigning, she isn't really ill.
- Latin fingere to shape, invent, feign
- Old French feign-, present stem of feindre
- Middle English fei(g)nen 1250–1300
feign′ing•ly, adv.
- 4. See pretend.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
feign /feɪn/ vb
'feigned' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
affected
- colourable
- dummy
- simulated
- Trojan Horse
- artificial
- assumed
- Cape Horn fever
- counterfeit
- false
- feint
- fiction
- fictitious
- figment
- glad hand
- make-believe
- mock
- Munchausen syndrome
- painted
- Parthian shot
- pretended
- put-on
- unfeigned
- wing-ding
- sham
- shuck
- spurious
- Sy
- synthetic