Websters Dictionary 1828
This online edition has been carefully prepared in a special format. All words, definitions, and examples have been preserved, but the explanations of word origins have been left out to make the data easier to use in a digital format. We have also removed Webster's long technical introduction for the same reason.
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Feign
FEIGN, verb transitive fane. [Latin fingo. The Latin forms fictum, fictus, whence figura, figure, also fucus.]
1. To invent or imagine; to form an idea or conception of something not real.
There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart. Nehemiah 6:8.
2. To make a show of; to pretend; to assume a false appearance; to counterfeit.
I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner. 2 Samuel 14:2.
She feigns a laugh.
3. To represent falsely; to pretend; to form and relate a fictitious tale.
The poet did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods.
4. To dissemble; to conceal. obsolete