Forms: 3–7 feigne, feine, -yne, 6 feygne, (3 feinyhe, 5 feyn-yn), 3–5 fene, (4 feny), 4–7 fain(e, -yn(e, (6 feane), 6–7 faigne (6 faynd), 6– feign. Sc. 4 fenyhe, 5 feiȝe, fenye, 6 fenȝie, feinȝie, feynȝe (printed feynze), 7 fane. Also 4 i-feyn. [ME. feinen, feignen, ad. OF. feindre (pr. pple. feign-ant):—Lat. fingĕre to form, mould, feign, whence FICTION, FIGMENT. Cf. Pr. fenher, finher, Sp., Pg. fingir, It. fingere.]
I. 1. trans. In material sense: To fashion, form, shape. Obs. exc. as nonce-use after Lat.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter, xciii. [xciv.] 9. Þat feinyhes egh, noght sees with-al?
1877. L. Morris, The Epic of Hades, I. 70.
| The deaf blind Fury, taking human souls | |
| And crushing them, as a dull fretful child | |
| Crushes its toys and knows not with what skill | |
| Those feeble forms are feigned. |
II. To fashion fictitiously or deceptively.
2. To invent (a story, excuse, accusation); to forge (a document).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 22007 (Cott.). Nathing sal I fene yow neu.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 421. Somme feynede a delay.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 175.
| Thou hast feigned | |
| This tale. |
1430–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 373. Somme fables be feynede for cause of delectation.
1534. Cranmer, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. II. 317. All that ever she said was fayned of her owne ymagynacion.
1655. Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, I. iii. § 7. As I find little, so I will feign nothing; time being better spent in Silence, then in Lying.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. II. vii. 265. There is nothing in the Characters, which would raise a Thought of their being feigned; but all the internal marks imaginable of their being real.
1790. Paley, Horæ Paul., Rom. ii. 19. Shall we say that the author of the Acts of the Apostles feigned this anecdote of St. Paul?
1862. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., x. 128. The blank in authentic or accurate accounts is always supplied by a plentiful admixture of fables, feigned by the superstition or national vanity of the people, or invented by the mere exercise of imagination in the absence of true narrative.
† b. To feign (a slander, fault) upon, against: to allege falsely against, attribute falsely to. Obs.
1535. Joye, Apol. Tindale, 1. Sclaunders fayned upon me.
c. 1615. Lives Women Saints, 31. She fayned her owne falte on the chaste yong prince.
1654. trans. Martini’s Conq. China, 205. Having feigned many crimes against the Priests, which Preached the Faith of Christ, had raised a bitter persecution against them.
† c. To invent, ‘coin’ (a word). Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 413. In Germany they call it ‘Pile’ and ‘Zisel’; and of this German word was the Latine ‘Citellus’ feigned. Ibid., 101 [see FEIGNED ppl. a. 2].
† d. To contrive (a deception). Obs.
1690. W. Walker, Idiomat. Anglo-Lat., 170. They fain a wile … among themselves.
3. To relate or represent in fiction; to fable. Const. with simple complement, with obj. and inf., or with sentence as obj. Now rare.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, V. viii. (1483), 99. Orpheus was so swete an harpoure as the clerkes feynen that [etc.].
a. 1569. Kingsmill, Godlie Advise (1580), 15. The Poets … fained there were iii She Goddesses in contention for their beautie.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 75. Harpyes … whome the Poets feynzeis to represent theuis.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man, II. (1603), 118. Diogenes is fained to see the rich King Crœsus among the dead, and thus to mocke him for his great riches, that then profited him nothing.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. viii. 77. Well did the Poets feigne Pallas Patronesse of arts and armes.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., II. 34. They faind a Post to come puffing upon the stage.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 625.
| Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, | |
| Abominable, inutterable, and worse | |
| Then Fables yet have feign’d, or fear conceiv’d. |
1727. De Foe, A System of Magic, I. ii. (1840), 41. He [Atlas] is feigned by the ancients to carry the world upon his shoulders; that is to say, his precepts of government supported the nations, and preserved order and discipline in the world.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 65/2. The poets feign of Hercules, that only with a club and lion’s skin he travelled over the world.
1816. J. Wilson, City of Plague, III. i. 343.
| Drest is she all in white, as Poets feign | |
| The angel Innocence. |
† b. absol. and intr. To make fictitious statements; to indulge in fiction. Obs.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 388.
| Oon seyde that Omere made lyes, | |
| Feyninge in his poetryes. |
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 418.
| Als put is in poise and prikkit be Ouyd, | |
| Þat feynit in his fablis & other fele stories. |
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., I. 15.
| Nor vnaduisedly we speake, nor rashly thereof fayne; | |
| The Pope himselfe doth chalenge this, in wordes and writings playne. |
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, II. i.
| He that should write | |
| But such a fellow, should be thought to faine | |
| Extremely, if not maliciously. |
1636. R. James, Iter Lanc. (1845), 4. If storyes do not faine.
4. (More fully, † to feign to oneself.) To conjure up (delusive representations); to picture to oneself, imagine (what is unreal). Now rare.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. Prol. 36. Somme … Feynen hem fantasies.
1525. Tindale, Matt. ix. 15, marg.-note. They fain themself no pain.
1578. Timme, Caluine on Gen., Cain … feigned to himself so many enemies, as there were men in the world.
1608. Bp. Hall, Char. Virtues & V., II. 91. Either there are bugs, or he faineth them.
1635. R. N., Camden’s Hist. Eliz., I. 32. Some, which (as Lovers use to doe,) feigned unto themselves vain dreames of marrying with her.
1674. Owen, Holy Spirit (1693), 200. Men have but deceived themselves and others, when they have feigned a Glory and a Beauty of the Church in other things.
1886. Gurney and Myers, Phantasms of the Living, I. 499. A sane, healthy, waking mind can really get momentarily off the rails, and can feign voices where there is silence, and figures where there is vacancy.
† b. To imagine, believe erroneously and arbitrarily. Const. with obj. and inf., or object clause.
1557. Tottell’s Misc. (Arb.), 227.
| The soules that lacked grace, | |
| Which lye in bitter paine: | |
| Are not in such a place, | |
| As foolish folke do faine. |
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. xii. 10.
| And livest thou, my daughter, now againe? | |
| And art thou yet alive, whom dead I long did faine? |
1604. E. G[rimston], trans. Acosta’s Nat. & Mor. Hist. Indies, III. vi. 137. We faine, that some Angell and intellectuall Spirite dooth walk with the Comet, guiding it circularly.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., I. iv. § 11. The Straights, where they fained Hercules his pillars to be.
1728. Newton, Chronol. Amended, 29. The ancients at length feigned that this Island, (which from Atlas they called Atlantis) had been as big as all Europe, Africa and Asia, but was sunk into the Sea.
c. To assume fictitiously for purposes of calculation. arch. or Obs.
1688. M. Prior, An Ode on Exod. iii., 14. vi.
| And he too, mighty thoughtful, mighty wise, | |
| Studies new Lines, and other Circles feigns. |
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., i. 3. The bounding line of the horizon is feigned to be a circle. Ibid., x. 77. It becomes necessary then, to feign an observer in the center of the Earth, whence all declinations would be seen as they ought to be, and to reduce to him observations made on the surface.
5. trans. To assert or maintain fictitiously; to allege, make out, pretend. Const. † with simple obj. or complement (rare), with obj. and inf., or with sentence as obj.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter, xciii. [xciv.] 20.
| Whor sete of wicknes sal cleve to þe, | |
| Þate feinyhes swinke in bode to be? |
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 932, Dido. Feyning the hors y-offred to Minerve.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 61. Þe kyng … wolde … feyne trespas for to byneme hem [Englisshe] here money.
1541. Barnes, Wks. (1573), 189/1. Is not thys toe much, both to bee traytors to your king? and also to faine God to bee displeased with your king, for punishing of treason?
1548. Hall, Chron., 232 b. Fayning that he was thycke of hearyng.
1554. Latimer, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. xxxiv. 90. That which is fayned of many, I for my Parte, take it but for a Papistical Invention.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 61.
| Not so the right valeant (whose soon thou art [printed thwart] feigned) Achilles | |
| Was to his foa Priamus. |
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xviii. And feigning that his doing so was needful to the welfare of the cookery.
1863. Draper, Intell. Devel. Europe, i. 4. [Man] has been feigned … to possess another immaterial principle.
† 6. To put a false appearance upon; to disguise, dissemble, conceal. Obs.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 208. She hath her owne body feigned.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 34. Poyetis … With fablis and falshed fayned þere speche. Ibid., 253. Ne the ffalshed he faynit vnder faire wordes.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 2397.
| Whar-by the he lady fayndit al for nocht | |
| The lowe quhich long hath ben In to her thocht. |
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. iii. 20. Both doe strive their fearefulnesse to faine.
† 7. refl. a. To disguise one’s sentiments, practise dissimulation, dissemble. Also intr. for refl. Obs.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 186, Vincent, 49. Þov feinest þe.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 2376. Naþeles he fenede him, þat me vnder ȝete it noȝt.
13[?]. Legends of the Holy Rood (1871), 85. All for noght þou feynes þe.
1382. Wyclif, Ecclus. xxiii. 13. If he shul feyne [si dissimulaverit] he shal trespasen double.
c. 1450. Merlin, 14. When she it sough, she fayned her.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. vii. 6. It was counsailed to the kyng … hym selfe to fayne.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Mortimers, xix.
| And warne all princes rashnes to refrayne: | |
| Bid them beware theyr enmies when they faine. |
† b. To assume a deceptive bearing. Obs.
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, VI. 208.
| Quhen Wallace feld thar curage was so small, | |
| He fenȝeit him for to comfort thaim all. |
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 96. Fayne thy self to appere outwardly more perfyte … than thou art.
8. trans. To make a show of, put on an appearance of, put on, pretend, simulate, sham; † to pretend to utter (words).
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr., 10. Ypocrittes … feyne gud dede with-owttene.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, I. 344. To fenyhe foly quhile is wyt.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 85. Duke Edrik … feynynge a vomet … seide þat he was seek.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 181. She feigned wordes in his ere.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3597. Fayne euer feire chere.
1598. R. T[ofte], Months Minde, G v. All was fained, ’twas not from the hart.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., V. iii. Wks. 1856, I. 134.
| The court is rackt to pleasure; each man straines | |
| To faine a jocund eye. |
1741. C. Middleton, Cicero, I. v. 385. He [Sextius] was so desperately wounded, as to be left for dead upon the spot; and escaped death, onely by feigning it.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1816), IV. 437. The serenity that is not felt, it can be no virtue to feign.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 162, ‘The Childe’s Destiny.’
| I charm thee fro the agony | |
| Which others feel or feign. |
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. vi. 72. They are both feigning sickness this morning.
b. absol. To practise simulation.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 2. He seemeth to faine, by vttering things clean contrary to his mind.
1671. Milton, P. R., I. 474.
| If it may stand him more in stead to lye, | |
| Say and unsay, feign, flatter or abjure? |
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), I. 99.
| Tho’ she be fair, I will not fenzie, | |
| She’s of a kind with mony mae; | |
| For why, they are a felon menzie | |
| That seemeth good, and are not sae. |
a. 1774. Goldsm., Madrigal, 3, Wks. (Globe), 691.
| Weeping, murmuring, complaining, | |
| Lost to every gay delight, | |
| Myra, too sincere for feigning, | |
| Fears th’ approaching bridal night. |
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xiii. She cannot feign; she scorns hypocrisy.
9. With refl. pron. as obj. followed by simple complement, † as, or to be: To make oneself appear, put on an appearance of being. † Formerly in wider use, with the refl. obj. followed by inf., that, as that.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 336. He feynede hym somdel syk.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 4233. He sal hym feyn first als haly.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Merch. T., 706. Sche feyned hir as that sche moste goon.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 59. A wel false traytour … þat couþe wel feyne hym self trewe frende.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IX. 128. Tho were faitours aferede · and feynede hem blynde.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xv. 66. A mysdoer þat was þat tyme in þat cuntree, þe whilk hight Takyna, þat delt with sorcery and thurgh his enchauntementz feyned him ane aungell and begyled ȝung damyselles oft sythes and lay by þam.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 97/1. She fayned her alleway to be seke.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 204. The Queene … did feyne her selfe that shee would go on pilgrimage.
1611. Bible, 2 Sam. xiv. 2. Faine thy selfe to be a mourner.
1726. De Foe, Hist. Devil, I. xi. (1840), 164. Satan made David feign himself mad.
1859. Smiles, Self-Help, iii. 53. To reconcile myself to it; which is more manly than to feign myself above it, and to send up complaints by the post.
b. intr. To pretend, make oneself appear. Const. to with inf. † Formerly with the same constructions as the refl. use above.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), iii. 10. He made signe of etyng and feyned as he had etyn.
c. 1450. Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 6344. He feynd als he þe toumbe walde kys.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), II. 79/1. He that hath no Faith, and yet faineth or pretendeth to haue.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. i. 9.
| Who feigning then in every limb to quake, | |
| Through inward feare, and seeming pale and faynt. |
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 6. Fayning to goe recreate himselfe … gave order publikly.
1778. Han. More, Florio, II. 185. Yet feigned to praise the gothic treat.
1784. Unfort. Sensibility, II. 47. I have sometimes feigned sick, when I had no other succedaneum for avoiding their parties.
1843. Emerson, Carlyle, Wks. (Bohn), III. 312. It is such an appeal to the conscience and honor of England as cannot be forgotten, or be feigned to be forgotten.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. xvi. Tremlow feigns to compare the portrait.
10. To counterfeit, imitate deceptively (esp. a voice, handwriting).
1484. Caxton, Æsop, II. ix. The wulf … faynynge the gotes voyce sayd.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vii. 1. Truth, whose shape she [deceipt] well can faine.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, iv. It was not difficult to disguise or to feign a voice.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Voluntaries (1857), 213. Feigning dwarfs, they crouch and creep.
† b. To adulterate. Obs. rare.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. v. (1495), 606. The tree of aloes is feyned [sophisticatum] wyth a tree that is lyke therto in weyght & in knottes.
1614. T. Adams, Deuills Banket, 324. Among many sophistications of this Balme, sometimes they faine it with water, and then it runnes aboue the water like oyle.
† c. To pass off (a thing) for something else.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 17. Lo, how they feignen chalk for chese.
† 11. To pretend to make (a pass) or to deal (a blow); also absol. to make a feint. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1757. He feyneth on his foot with a tronchoun.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, X. xix. Some whyle they fayned, some whyle they strake as wyld men.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 3. Making with his point towards the others face, and faining a passage … The Prince … fained at him divers foynes.
† 12. Music. a. To sing softly, hum an air. b. To sing with due regard to the ‘accidentals,’ which the old notation did not indicate. [See Musica ficta, in Grove, Dict. Mus.; cf. also F. par feinte ‘by the alteration of a semitone.’] Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 153/1. Fevnyn yn syngynge, or synge lowe.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 158 b. Not … feynynge, but with a full brest & hole voyce.
a. 1529. Skelton, Comely Coystrowne, 53. He techyth them … to solf & to fayne. Ibid., Bowge of Courte, 233. His throte was clere, and lustely coude fayne.
1530. Palsgr., 548/1. We maye nat synge out … but lette us fayne this songe.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 72. He feyneth to the lute marveilouse swetely.
† III. 13. [After OF. feindre, se feindre.] intr. and refl. To avoid one’s duty by false pretences; to shirk, flinch, hang back. Also with inf.: To be reluctant or afraid to do something; to avoid, shirk (doing). Obs.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 5884.
| And Perdicas feyned noughth, | |
| For als a wode lyoun he faughth. |
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 317.
| For ther was noon of hem that feyned | |
| To singe, for ech of hem him peyned. |
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1734.
| Ffeyne ȝow noghte feyntly, ne frythes no wapyns, | |
| Bot luke ȝe fyghte faythefully, frekes ȝour-selfene. |
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1797.
| But never this archer wolde feyne | |
| To shete at me with all his peyne. | |
| Ibid., 2996. | |
| If I may helpe you in ought, | |
| I shall not faine, dredeth nought. |
c. 1420. Lydg., Temple of Glass, 995.
| She me constreyned, without chaunge, anone | |
| To ȝoure seruise, & neuer forto feyne. |
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 4721. Ye se me feyne neuer a dele.
c. 1400. Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 172.
| Supporte a man to day, to-morne agans hym than, | |
| On both parties thus I play and fenys me to ordan | |
| The right. |
1523–5. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cccxiii. 194 b. There they made a great assaut. The Englysshmen fayned nat.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 566. Exhortand thame … for na fray to feinȝie nor to fle.
† b. trans. To shirk, avoid fulfilling (a command); to ‘shuffle out of’ (one’s word). Obs.
c. 1300. Beket, 41.
| Tho Gilbert ihurde this: he stod in grete thoȝt, | |
| And feignede his word her and ther: and ne grantede noȝt. |
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 473. Lordes hestes mow not ben i-feynit.
