faint

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   lacking conviction or boldness or courage

   faint heart ne'er won fair lady

2. 2
   adj

   indistinctly understood or felt or perceived

   a faint clue to the origin of the mystery

3. 3
   adj

   lacking strength or vigor

   damning with faint praise

4. 4
   adj

   weak and likely to lose consciousness

   suddenly felt faint from the pain

5. 5
   adj

   Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness

   I felt faint after my fifth gin and tonic.

6. 6
   adj

   Lacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected.

   Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.

7. 7
   adj

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

   There was a faint red light in the distance.

8. 8
   adj

   Performed, done, or acted, weakly; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy.

   faint efforts

Etymology

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.