faint

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /feɪnt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Homophone: feint
• Rhymes: -eɪnt

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.

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
   • 1789, Robert Burns, to Dr. Blacklock:

     Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.

3. Barely perceptible; not bright, or loud, or sharp

   Synonyms: dull, wan; see also Thesaurus:dim

   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, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 243b:

     do you have the faintest understanding of what they mean?

6. (archaic) Sickly, so as to make a person feel faint.
   • 1843, Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit:

     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.

• (barely perceptible): feint (for printed lines)

faint (plural faints)

1. The act of fainting, syncope.

   She suffered another faint.

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)

2. (intransitive) 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).
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Mark 8:8:

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

   • 1713 September 22, Richard Steele, The Guardian, number 167:

     But upon hearing the Honour which he intended her , she fainted away , and fell down as Dead at his Feet

3. (intransitive) To lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Proverbs 24:10:

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

4. (intransitive) 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.

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

• fainting goat

• “faint”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “faint”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “faint”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Fanti, fitna

From Middle High German vīnt, vīent, vīant, from Old High German fīant, fīand, from Proto-Germanic *fijandz (“enemy, fiend”). Cognate with German Feind, English fiend.

faint m (plural fainte)

1. (Sette Comuni) enemy, fiend

   Biibel péssor möchte zeinan de bèlt as da börn khòone fainte?

   How much better would the world be if there were no enemies?

• “faint” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

• pa faint (literary)

Shortened from pa faint (“what amount”).

• IPA^(key): /vai̯nt/
• Rhymes: -ai̯nt

faint m

1. how much, how many

• Faint means "how many" when followed by o and the plural form of a countable noun and "how much" followed o and an uncountable noun.

Faint o gathod? ― How many cats?

Faint o goffi? ― How much coffee?

• Sawl, on the other hand, corresponds solely to English "how many" and is followed by the singular form of a countable noun.

Sawl cath? ― How many cats?

Sawl coffi? ― How many coffees?

• faint bynnag (“however many”)
• ta faint (“however many”)