faint

• IPA^(key): /feɪ̯nt/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -eɪnt
• Homophone: feint

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, usually form, shape, frame, form in thought, imagine, conceive, contrive, devise, feign”).

faint (comparative fainter, superlative faintest)

1. (of a being) Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness

   I felt faint after my fifth gin and tonic.

2. Lacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected
   • (Can we date this quote?) "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady." Robert Burns - To Dr. Blackjack.
3. Hardly 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

5. Slight; minimal.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 243b.

     do you have the faintest understanding of what they mean?

• damn with faint praise
• fainten
• faint-hearted
• faintish
• faintling
• faintly
• faintness

faint (plural faints)

1. The act of fainting, syncope.
2. (rare) The state of one who has fainted; a swoon.

• faintful
• faintless
• faintsome

From Middle English fainten, feynten, from the adjective (see above).

faint (third-person singular simple present faints, present participle fainting, simple past and past participle fainted)

1. (intransitive) To lose consciousness. Caused by a lack of oxygen or nutrients to the brain, usually as a result of a suddenly reduced blood flow (may be caused by emotional trauma, loss of blood or various medical conditions).
   • Bible, Mark viii. 8

     If I send them away fasting […] they will faint by the way.

   • Guardian

     Hearing the honour intended her, she fainted away.

2. To sink into dejection; to lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
   • Bible, Proverbs xxiv. 10

     If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

3. To decay; to disappear; to vanish.
   • Alexander Pope

     Gilded clouds, while we gaze upon them, faint before the eye.

• (to loose consciousness): pass out, swoon, sweb, black out, keel over
• queal

• faint in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• faint in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• faint at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Fanti, fitna

• pa faint (literary)

Shortened from pa faint (“what amount”).

• IPA^(key): /vai̯nt/

faint

1. how much, how many

Faint means either how many, followed by o and the plural form of a noun with soft mutation, or how much, preceding o and the singular form of a noun, again with soft mutation. Sawl corresponds only to English how many and is followed by the singular form of a noun.