feinting

Verb

feint (third-person singular simple present feints, present participle feinting, simple past and past participle feinted)

1. (transitive) To direct (a blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack) on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part.
   • Genevra scowled and said, "His word is wild, / But dastard treason feinteth such disorders: / Treason or witchcraft neither, undefiled, / A Christian court may cherish in its borders."1882, T. Alderson Wilson, “Lanval”, in Perseus and Other Essays in Verse, London: Ranken and Co., […], →OCLC, page 74
2. (rare, transitive) To direct a feint or mock attack against (someone).
   • Feint him—use your legs! draw him about! he'll lose his wind then in no time, and you can go into him.1857, [Thomas Hughes], “The Fight”, in Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, part II, page 323
3. (also, intransitive, often) To make a feint or mock attack.
   • Ben-Hur feinted with his right hand. The stranger warded, slightly advancing his left arm. Ere he could return to guard, Ben-Hur caught him by the wrist in a grip which years at the oar had made terrible as a vise.1880 November 12, Lew[is] Wallace, chapter XVI, in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, book fifth, page 387

   Synonyms:

   juke

See all 9 meanings of feint