different between feint vs disguise

English

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French feint (“pretended”), from Old French feindre (“to feign”).

Verb

feint (third-person singular simple present feints, present participle feinting, simple past and past participle feinted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make a feint, or mock attack.
   • 1914, Booth Tarkington, Penrod Chapter 22

     when he passed other children on the street, he practised the habit of feinting a blow; then, as the victim dodged, he rasped out the triumphant horse-laugh which he gradually mastered to horrible perfection.

   • 1924, Harold Lamb, Forward

     I spurred on the Turani instead of pulling him in, and stood up in the saddle just as we came upon the two. By feinting a slash at one I made him throw up his saber to guard his head. Then, leaning down as the three ponies came together, I cut at the other’s neck, getting home over his blade. His mount reared and shelled him out of the saddle like a pea out of a pod.

   • 2013, Len Levinson, Meat Grinder Hill

     Gomez feinted with his knife and the other man darted backward. He feinted again and the man moved to the side. The man feinted but Gomez didn't budge; he was anxious to get it on.

Translations

Adjective

feint (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Feigned; counterfeit.
2. (fencing, boxing, war) (of an attack) directed toward a different part from the intended strike

Translations

Noun

feint (plural feints)

1. A movement made to confuse the opponent; a dummy.
2. Something feigned; an false or pretend appearance; a pretense or stratagem.

   • Mr. Courtly's letter is but a feint to get off from a subject […] .

   • 2014, Alastair Mann , James VII: Duke and King of Scots

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

4. (fencing, boxing, war) An offensive movement resembling an attack in all but its continuance
   • 1858, William Hamilton Maxwell, Flood & field; or, The recollections of a soldier of fortune

     Massena's retreat might only be a feint to draw the allies from their position

   • 1999, Allan Skipp, Handbook of Foil Fencing

     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.

Translations

Etymology 2

C19: Variant of faint.

Noun

feint (uncountable)

1. The narrowest rule used in the production of lined writing paper.

Anagrams

• Fenit

French

Etymology

Past participle of feindre; from Old French feint, from Latin fictus, probably through the Vulgar Latin form *finctus, with a nasal infix. Compare Italian finto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??/
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

feint m (feminine singular feinte, masculine plural feints, feminine plural feintes)

1. past participle of feindre
2. third-person singular present indicative of feindre

Anagrams

• fient

West Frisian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

feint c (plural feinten, diminutive feintsje)

1. young man
2. boy
3. boyfriend

   Coordinate term: faam

Derived terms

• frijfeint

Further reading

• “feint”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology

From Middle English disgisen, disguisen, borrowed from Old French desguiser (modern French déguiser), itself derived from des- (“dis-”) (from Latin dis-) + guise (“guise”) (from a Germanic source).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d?s??a?z/, /d?z??a?z/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d?s??a?z/, /d??ska?z/
• Hyphenation: dis?guise
• Rhymes: -a?z

Noun

disguise (countable and uncountable, plural disguises)

1. Material (such as clothing, makeup, a wig) used to alter one’s visual appearance in order to hide one's identity or assume another.

   A cape and moustache completed his disguise.

2. (figuratively) The appearance of something on the outside which masks what's beneath.
3. The act of disguising, notably as a ploy.

   Any disguise may expose soldiers to be deemed enemy spies.

4. (archaic) A change of behaviour resulting from intoxication.

Synonyms

• camouflage
• guise
• mask
• pretense

Translations

Verb

disguise (third-person singular simple present disguises, present participle disguising, simple past and past participle disguised)

1. (transitive) To change the appearance of (a person or thing) so as to hide, or to assume an identity.

   Spies often disguise themselves.
2. (transitive) To avoid giving away or revealing (something secret); to hide by a false appearance.

   He disguised his true intentions.

3. (archaic) To affect or change by liquor; to intoxicate.

   • I have just left the right worshipful, and his myrmidons, about a sneaker or five gallons; the whole magistracy was pretty well disguised before I gave them the slip.

Synonyms

• camouflage
• cloak
• mask
• hide

Derived terms

• disguisedly
• disguisement
• disguiser

Translations