as in pretends
to present a false appearance of
I would never feign illness just to get out of a test
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Recent Examples of feigns
Someone who’s really living the Andrew Tate-like lifestyle Jacob only feigns is his bestie Cameron (Dylan Playfair).
—
Dennis Harvey, Variety, 7 Aug. 2025
The second man with a flail steps forward and feigns a move.
—Miguel Torres, AZCentral.com, 16 May 2025
Dennis Harvey, Variety, 7 Aug. 2025
The second man with a flail steps forward and feigns a move.
—Miguel Torres, AZCentral.com, 16 May 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for feigns
Verb
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The human therapist pretends to be a client.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
21 Jan. 2026
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By March, the city pretends the interruption never happened.—
Alexandra Martinez,
Artforum,
15 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
This assumes no growth in demand.—
Alex Pavlak,
Baltimore Sun,
1 Feb. 2026
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But things take a turn for the worse when Edward's clairvoyant sister Alice (Ashley Greene) mistakenly assumes Bella plummeted to her death while cliffdiving.—
Lincee Ray,
Entertainment Weekly,
1 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The software simulates wind passing over the avatar, computational fluid dynamics calculate how much resistance there is — and how tweaking a skater’s form alters that.—
Howard Fendrich,
Chicago Tribune,
4 Feb. 2026
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Most prominently, engineers detected leaking hydrogen during the test, known as a wet dress rehearsal that simulates a launch day countdown.—
Eric Lagatta,
USA Today,
3 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Feigns.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/feigns. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.
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