faint
/feɪnt/ adjective, noun, verb
Forms fainter faintest faints fainting fainted feint
- adjective (of a being) Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness “I felt faint after my fifth gin and tonic.”
- adjective Lacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected.
- adjective Barely perceptible; not bright, or loud, or sharp. “There was a faint red light in the distance.”
- adjective Performed, done, or acted, weakly; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy. “faint efforts”
- adjective Slight; minimal. “a faint chance”
- adjective (archaic) Sickly, so as to make a person feel faint.
- noun The act of fainting, syncope. “She suffered another faint.”
- noun (rare) The state of one who has fainted; a swoon.
- verb (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). “A fainting fit.”
- verb (intransitive) To lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
- verb (intransitive) To decay; to disappear; to vanish.
Synonyms
dizzy dull wan bland colourless dim dingy lackluster leaden muddy sad sober uncolorful unholiday remote pass out swoon sweb black out keel over syncope deliquium conk weak shadowy vague wispy feeble light swooning
Etymology
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, form, shape, frame, form in thought, imagine, conceive, contrive, devise, feign”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold”). Cognate with feign and fiction and more distantly dough.
From Middle English fainten, feynten, from the adjective (see above).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to swoon; as, faint with fatigue, hunger, or thirst.
- adjective Wanting in courage, spirit, or energy; timorous; cowardly; dejected; depressed; as, "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady." Old Proverb.
- noun The act of fainting, or the state of one who has fainted; a swoon. [R.] See Fainting, n. The saint, Who propped the Virgin in her faint. Sir W. Scott.
- verb To become weak or wanting in vigor; to grow feeble; to lose strength and color, and the control of the bodily or mental functions; to swoon; --sometimes with away. See Fainting, n. Hearing the honor intended her, she fainted away. Guardian.
Etymology [OE. faint, feint, false, faint, F. feint, p.p. of feindre to feign, suppose, hesitate. See Faign, and cf. Feint.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “faint”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details