faint
/feɪnt/
faint adjective: lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness.
Adjective
faint (comparative fainter, superlative faintest)
- Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness
- I felt faint after my fifth gin and tonic.
- He almost fell faint due to the hot climate.
- Synonyms:
- dizzy
- Lacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected.
- Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.1789, Robert Burns, to Dr. Blacklock
- Barely perceptible; not bright, or loud, or sharp.
- There was a faint red light in the distance.
- Synonyms:
- dull, wan, bland, colourless, dim, dingy, lackluster, leaden, muddy, sad
- Performed, done, or acted, weakly; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy.
- faint efforts
- faint resistance
- Slight; minimal.
- a faint chance
- do you have the faintest understanding of what they mean?2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 243b
- Synonyms:
- remote
- Sickly, so as to make a person feel faint.
- Happening to pass a fruiterer’s on their way; the door of which was open, though the shop was by this time shut; one of them remarked how faint the peaches smelled.1843, Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit
Noun
faint (plural faints)
Verb
faint (third-person singular simple present faints, present participle fainting, simple past and past participle fainted)
- To lose consciousness through a lack of oxygen or nutrients to the brain, usually as a result of suddenly reduced blood flow (may be caused by emotional trauma, loss of blood or various medical conditions).
- A fainting fit.
- If I send them away fasting […] they will faint by the way.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 8:8
- To lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
- If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 24:10
- To decay; to disappear; to vanish.
- November 12, 1711, Alexander Pope, letter to Henry Cromwell
Gilded clouds, while we gaze upon them, faint before the eye.
- November 12, 1711, Alexander Pope, letter to Henry Cromwell
faint meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
faint in Hindi
- lacking distinctness, hardly perceptible
- फीका phīkā
- performed in a weak or feeble manner
- फीका phīkā
- lacking strength; inclined to lose consciousness
- शक्तिहीन śaktihīn, मंद mand
- the act of fainting
- मूर्छा mūrchā
faint in Tamil
- to lose consciousness
- மயங்கு mayaṅku
faint in Urdu
- دھیما, مدھم, پھیکا, ضعیف, چکرانا, غش کھانا
faint in Bengali
- ম্লান, অজ্ঞানপ্রায়
More languagesFewer languages
- faint in Telugu
- తూలు tūlu
- faint in Malayalam
- അയർക്കുക ayaṟkkuka
- faint in Kannada
- ದುರ್ಬಲನಾದ, ನಿಶ್ಶಕ್ತನಾದ, ಬಲಹೀನ, ಮಸಕು
- faint in Odia
- ମୂର୍ଛିତ
- faint in Nepali
- ढल्नु ḍhalnu
- faint in Tagalog
- himatayin
- faint in Arabic
- إِغْمَاء ʔiḡmāʔ, أُغْمِيَ ʔuḡmiya, غُشِيَ ḡušiya
- faint in Malay
- pengsan
- faint in Indonesian
- pingsan
- faint in Thai
- สลบ sà-lòp, เป็นลม bpen-lom
- faint in Vietnamese
- ngất, xỉu
Examples of faint in a sentence
- They damned the latest book with faint praise.
- But upon hearing the Honour which he intended her , she fainted away , and fell down as Dead at his Feet1713 September 22, Richard Steele, The Guardian, number 167:
Synonyms of faint
11 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of faint
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | fainter |
| superlative | faintest |
| alternative form | feint |
| Noun | |
| plural | faints |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | faints |
| present participle | fainting |
| past participle | fainted |
| past | fainted |
Origin of faint
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, form, shape, frame, form in thought, imagine, conceive, contrive, devise, feign”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold”). Cognate with feign and fiction and more distantly dough.
From Middle English fainten, feynten, from the adjective (see above).
Words formed from faint
- damn with faint praise
- fainten
- faint-heart
- faintheart
- fainthearted
- faint-hearted
- faint heart never won fair lady
- faint heart never won fair maiden
- fainthood
- faintish
- faintling
- faintly
- faintness
- faint of heart
- faintward
- forfaint
- overfaint
- praise with faint damns
- ultrafaint
- faintful
- faintless
- faintsome
- afaint
- fainting goat
- faintingly
- faintingness
- fainty
- unfainting
Phrases with faint
Words that rhyme with faint
Questions about faint
- What does faint mean?
- Faint means lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness.
- What is faint in Hindi?
- Faint in Hindi is फीका (phīkā), मूर्छा (mūrchā), शक्तिहीन (śaktihīn). See Faint meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use faint in a sentence?
- They damned the latest book with faint praise.
- What part of speech is faint?
- Faint can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce faint?
- Faint is pronounced /feɪnt/ (UK).
Words near faint in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: faint (page history and authors); faint (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); faint (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); తూలు (Telugu) (page history and authors); അയർക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); faint (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); faint (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ढल्नु (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-feint.wav, En-us-faint.ogg.
Cite this entry: “faint.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/faint. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.