feigning

«feigning» in Mova's school dictionary: Pretending to have a feeling, illness or state that is… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

-ing form of the verb feign (feign, feigns, feigned, feigning)

meaning for a pupil

Pretending to have a feeling, illness or state that is not real: «feigning sleep», «feigning surprise». tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories, characters feign illness to stay home, or feign sleep to trick someone. In nature, some animals feign death (playing dead) to escape predators, like the opossum. A rather formal word; everyday word is «pretending».

examples

• He was feigning illness to miss the test. tree →
• The opossum survives by feigning death. tree →
• She lay still, feigning sleep. tree →
• He was feigning surprise, but he knew about the party. tree →
• Stop feigning — I know you're awake! tree →
• The bird was feigning a broken wing to lead the fox away. tree →

note

Feign: silent g, sounds like «fain» (rhymes with rain). Formal-ish; prefer «pretending». Do not confuse with «faint» (to pass out).

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «feigning» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.