Past tense of feign
regular verb
The past tense of feign is feigned. The past participle is also feigned.
Forms of feign
| Base form (V1) | feign /feɪn/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | feigned /ˈfeɪnd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | feigned /ˈfeɪnd/ |
| Present participle | feigning /ˈfeɪnɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | feigns /feɪnz/ |
Feigned in a sentence
- The pupil feigned sickness on the day of his exam.
- They feigned her signature on the cheque.
- I examined a man who frequently feigned illness so he could stay home from work.1954 November 15, “Damning Diagnosis”, in Modern Medicine, volume 22, number 22, Minneapolis, M.N.: Modern Medicine Publications, Inc.…. From the entry workphobia
- Apparently suffering from amnesia and paralysis of vocal chords (? both feigned).1953, Ian Fleming, “Dossier for M”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 19. From the entry DP
- He could have feigned noncomprehension, but with Lanyon one didn’t try anything on.1953, Mary Renault, chapter 2, in The Charioteer, New York: Pantheon, published 1959, page 26. From the entry try on
Meaning of feign
- verb To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.
- verb To imagine; to invent; to pretend to do something.
- verb To make an action as if doing one thing, but actually doing another, for example to trick an opponent; to feint.
Questions about the past tense of feign
- What is the past tense of feign?
- The past tense of feign is feigned.
- What is the past participle of feign?
- The past participle of feign is feigned.
- Is feign a regular or irregular verb?
- Feign is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: feign (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of feign.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/feign. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.