faint
adjectivenounverbcommon in dialogue
- United States//feɪnt//
Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness
adjective
- 1
Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness
I felt faint after my fifth gin and tonic.
He almost fell faint due to the hot climate.
- 2
Lacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected.
Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.
- 3
Barely perceptible; not bright, or loud, or sharp.
There was a faint red light in the distance.
- 4
Performed, done, or acted, weakly; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy.
faint efforts
faint resistance
They damned the latest book with faint praise.
- 5
Slight; minimal.
a faint chance
do you have the faintest understanding of what they mean?
- 6
archaicSickly, so as to make a person feel faint.
Happening to pass a fruiterer’s on their way; the door of which was open, though the shop was by this time shut; one of them remarked how faint the peaches smelled.
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.
noun
- 1
The act of fainting, syncope.
She suffered another faint.
- 2
rareThe state of one who has fainted; a swoon.
verb
- 1
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.
If I send them away fasting […] they will faint by the way.
But upon hearing the Honour which he intended her , she fainted away , and fell down as Dead at his Feet
- 2
To lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
- 3
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.
Etymology
From Middle English fainten, feynten, from the adjective (see above).
Forms
- plural
- faints
- comparative
- fainter
- superlative
- faintest
- past tense
- fainted
- past participle
- fainted
- present participle
- fainting
- third person singular
- faints
faint · Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness
fainting · An act of collapsing into a state of temporary…faintly · In a faint manner; very quietly or lightly.fair · Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure;…