faint

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Hard to see, hear, or notice; not strong or clear.

   There was a faint red light in the distance.

2. 2
   adj

   Feeling weak and dizzy, as if you might lose consciousness.

   She suddenly felt faint from the pain.

3. 3
   adj

   Very slight or small.

   There was only a faint chance of success.

Common collocations

• faint hope Adjective + noun
• faint smell Adjective + noun

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.

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