Faint Meaning
/feɪnt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjLacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness
adjLacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected.
Sentence Examples
The sound of shouting grew faint.
I suddenly stood up and felt faint and light-headed.
The faint smell of her perfume lingered in the room.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She felt so weak that she thought she might ____ in the heat.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He felt ____ from the heat and had to sit down in the shade for a few minutes to recover.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Faint heart ne'er won fair lady."
— 1789, Robert Burns, to Dr. Blacklock:
"do you have the faintest understanding of what they mean?"
— 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 243b:
"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:
"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:
"But upon hearing the Honour which he intended her , she fainted away , and fell down as Dead at his Feet"
— 1713 September 22, Richard Steele, The Guardian, number 167:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She felt so weak that she thought she might ____ in the heat.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He felt ____ from the heat and had to sit down in the shade for a few minutes to recover.