different between faint vs dead

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fe?nt/
• Rhymes: -e?nt
• Homophone: feint

Etymology 1

From Middle English faynt, feynt (“weak; feeble”), from Old French faint, feint (“feigned; negligent; sluggish”), past participle of feindre, faindre (“to feign; sham; work negligently”), from Latin fingere (“to touch, handle, usually form, shape, frame, form in thought, imagine, conceive, contrive, devise, feign”).

Adjective

faint (comparative fainter, superlative faintest)

1. (of a being) Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness

2. Lacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected
   • 1789, Robert Burns, to Dr. Blacklock

     Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.

3. Barely perceptible; not bright, or loud, or sharp

4. Performed, done, or acted, weakly; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy

5. Slight; minimal.
   • 2005, Lesley Brown (translator), Plato, Sophist, 243b.

     do you have the faintest understanding of what they mean?

Derived terms

• damn with faint praise
• fainten
• faint-hearted
• faintish
• faintling
• faintly
• faintness

Translations

Noun

faint (plural faints)

1. The act of fainting, syncope.

2. (rare) The state of one who has fainted; a swoon.

Derived terms

• faintful
• faintless
• faintsome

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English fainten, feynten, from the adjective (see above).

Verb

faint (third-person singular simple present faints, present participle fainting, simple past and past participle fainted)

1. (intransitive) To lose consciousness through a lack of oxygen or nutrients to the brain, usually as a result of suddenly reduced blood flow (may be caused by emotional trauma, loss of blood or various medical conditions).

   • If I send them away fasting […] they will faint by the way.

   • September 22 1713, Richard Steele, The Guardian No. 167

     But upon hearing the Honour which he intended her , she fainted away , and fell down as Dead at his Feet

2. (intransitive) To lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
3. (intransitive) To decay; to disappear; to vanish.
   • November 12, 1711, Alexander Pope, letter to Henry Cromwell

     Gilded clouds, while we gaze upon them, faint before the eye.

Synonyms

• (to lose consciousness): pass out, swoon, sweb, black out, keel over
• queal

Translations

Further reading

• faint in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• faint in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• faint at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Fanti, fitna

Cimbrian

Etymology

From Middle High German v?nt, v?ent, v?ant, from Old High German f?ant, f?and, from Proto-Germanic *fijandz (“enemy, fiend”). Cognate with German Feind, English fiend.

Noun

fàint m (plural fainte)

1. (Sette Comuni) enemy, fiend

References

• “faint” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

Welsh

Alternative forms

• pa faint (literary)

Etymology

Shortened from pa faint (“what amount”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vai?nt/

Pronoun

faint

1. how much, how many

Usage notes

Faint means either how many, followed by o and the plural form of a noun with soft mutation, or how much, preceding o and the singular form of a noun, again with soft mutation. Sawl corresponds only to English how many and is followed by the singular form of a noun.

English

Etymology

From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English d?ad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz.

Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish, Norwegian død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud.

Pronunciation

• enPR: d?d, IPA^(key): /d?d/
• Rhymes: -?d
• (West Country) IPA^(key): /di?d/

Adjective

dead (comparative deader, superlative deadest)

1. (usually not comparable) No longer living. (Also used as a noun.)
   • 1968, Ray Thomas, "Legend of a Mind", The Moody Blues, In Search of the Lost Chord.

   Have respect for the dead.

   The villagers are mourning their dead.

   The dead are always with us, in our hearts.

2. (usually not comparable) Devoid of life.
3. (hyperbolic) Figuratively, not alive; lacking life.
4. (of another person) So hated that they are absolutely ignored.

5. Doomed; marked for death (literally or as a hyperbole).
6. Without emotion.

7. Stationary; static.

8. Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.

9. Unproductive.

10. (not comparable, of a machine, device, or electrical circuit) Completely inactive; currently without power; without a signal.
11. (of a battery) Unable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.
12. (not comparable) Broken or inoperable.

13. (not comparable) No longer used or required.
    • 1984, Winston Smock, Technical Writing for Beginners, page 148:

      No mark of any kind should ever be made on a dead manuscript.

    • 2017, Zhaomo Yang and Brian Johannesmeyer, "Dead Store Elimination (Still) Considered Harmful":

      In this paper, we survey the set of techniques found in the wild that are intended to prevent data-scrubbing operations from being removed during dead store elimination.

14. (engineering) Not imparting motion or power by design.

15. (not comparable, sports) Not in play.

16. (not comparable, golf, of a golf ball) Lying so near the hole that the player is certain to hole it in the next stroke.
17. (not comparable, baseball, slang, 1800s) Tagged out.
18. (not comparable) Full and complete.

19. (not comparable) Exact.

20. Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).

    After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.

21. Constructed so as not to transmit sound; soundless.

22. (obsolete) Bringing death; deadly.
23. (law) Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.

24. (rare, especially religion, often with "to") Indifferent to, no longer subject to or ruled by (sin, guilt, pleasure, etc).
    • 1839, William Jenks, The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible: Acts-Revelation, page 361:

      He was dead to the law. Whatever account others might make of it, yet, for his part, he was dead to it. […] But though he was thus dead to the law, yet he […] was far from thinking himself discharged from his duty to God' on the contrary, he was dead to the law, that he might live unto God.

    • 1849, Robert Haldane, Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, page 255:

      But he died to the guilt of sin—to the guilt of his people's sins which he had taken upon him; and they, dying with him, as is above declared, die to sin precisely in the same sense in which he died to it. […] He was not justified from it till his resurrection, but from that moment he was dead to it. When he shall appear the second time, it will be "without sin."

Usage notes

• In Middle and Early Modern English, the phrase is dead was more common where the present perfect form has died is common today. Example:

1611, King James Bible

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Gal. 2:21)

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:dead

Antonyms

• alive
• living

Translations

Adverb

dead (not comparable)

1. (degree, informal, colloquial) Exactly.

   dead right; dead level; dead flat; dead straight; dead left

   He hit the target dead in the centre.

2. (degree, informal, colloquial) Very, absolutely, extremely.

   dead wrong; dead set; dead serious; dead drunk; dead broke; dead earnest; dead certain; dead slow; dead sure; dead simple; dead honest; dead accurate; dead easy; dead scared; dead solid; dead black; dead white; dead empty

3. Suddenly and completely.

   He stopped dead.

4. (informal) As if dead.

   dead tired; dead quiet; dead asleep; dead pale; dead cold; dead still

   • I was tired of reading, and dead sleepy.

Translations

Noun

dead (uncountable)

2. (often with "the") Time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.

   The dead of night. The dead of winter.

3. (collective, with the) Those persons who are dead.

Translations

Noun

dead (plural deads)

2. (Britain) (usually in the plural) Sterile mining waste, often present as many large rocks stacked inside the workings.

Verb

dead (third-person singular simple present deads, present participle deading, simple past and past participle deaded)

1. (transitive) To prevent by disabling; stop.
   • 1826, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Edward Reynolds, Lord Bishop of Norwich, collected by Edward Reynolds, Benedict Riveley, and Alexander Chalmers. pp. 227. London: B. Holdsworth.

     “What a man should do, when finds his natural impotency dead him in spiritual works”

2. (transitive) To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigour.
3. (Britain, transitive, slang) To kill.

Related terms

• deaden
• deadliness
• deadly
• deadness
• death
• undead

Derived terms

References

• dead at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Dade, Edda, adde, dade

French

Etymology

From English dead.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?d/

Verb

dead

1. (slang, anglicism) to succeed (in doing something well, "killing it")

Usage notes

The verb is left unconjugated: il dead, il a dead. Usage is limited to the present, as well as an infinitive or a past participle.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *daud.

Cognate with Old Frisian d?d (West Frisian dead), Old Saxon d?d, Dutch dood, Old High German t?t (German tot), Old Norse dauðr (Swedish död), Gothic ???????????????????? (dauþs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dæ???d/

Adjective

d?ad

1. dead

Declension

Derived terms

• d?adl??
• healfd?ad

Related terms

• d?aþ

Descendants

• Middle English: ded, deed
  • Scots: dede, deed, deid
  • English: dead
  • Yola: deed

See also

• steorfan

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from English dead or death (with the "th" changed to "d").

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [de?ad]

Noun

dead (nominative plural deads)

1. death, state being dead, state of death

Declension

Derived terms

• ädeadöl
• bludamodeadön
• dadeadön
• deadam
• deadamadel
• deadan
• deadanöp
• deadik
• deadio
• deadöf
• deadöfan
• deadöfik
• deadöl
• deadölan
• deadön
• deid
• deidöl
• deidön
• drakideidan
• drakihideidan
• drakijideidan
• edeadöl
• edeadön
• hideadan
• hideadöfan
• hideadölan
• jideadan
• jideadöfan
• jideadölan
• pedeidöl