[f. FEIGN v. + -ER1.] One who or that which feigns, in various senses of the vb.; † a fashioner, constructor, inventor; the contriver of a fiction (obs.); a simulator, pretender, counterfeiter.
1382. Wyclif, Deut. xiii. 5. That prophete or feyner of sweuenes shal be slayn.
c. 1400. An Apology for Lollard Doctrines, 85. Wat profitiþ a grauen þing? for his feynar haþ hopid in his feynid þingis.
1488. Caxton, Chast. Goddes Chyld., 28. In goddes sighte they ben very fyctifs feyners.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., III. 276. Ane freir … flatterar and fenȝear.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 715. The greene Parrat, fainer of our Words. Ibid. (1598), II. ii. II., Babylon, 614. The fluent fainer of Orlandos error.
1636. B. Jonson, Discov., Wks. (Rtldg.), 761/2. A poet is that which by the Greeks is called κατ’ εξοχην, ὁ ποιητης, a maker, or a feigner.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 693. This Notion … was from the first Feigner or Inventor of it, propagated all along and conveyed down, by Oral Tradition.
1827. Examiner, 50/2. Either Farmers are dreadful feigners, or their present endurance cannot last long.
1863. Holme Lee, A. Warleigh’s Fortunes, III. 104. She was a bad feigner; but she said, Yes, she had heard of Mr. Gilsland’s death.
