What's the difference between feign and pretending?

Feign


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To give a mental existence to, as to something not real or actual; to imagine; to invent; hence, to pretend; to form and relate as if true.
  • (v. t.) To represent by a false appearance of; to pretend; to counterfeit; as, to feign a sickness.
  • (v. t.) To dissemble; to conceal.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Activity peaked during the period corresponding to evening twilight and was negligible during the morning twilight period; in contrast, death feigning peaked during the morning twilight period.
  • (2) Simple maximal grip force measurements are insensitive to the different motor strategies used in maximal and submaximal efforts and may provide little evidence for the detection of feigning.
  • (3) The hypocritical Greens remained absolutely silent while these projects were advanced, but now they feign an interest.
  • (4) Expressions that included muscular activity around the eyes in addition to the smiling lips occurred more often when people were actually enjoying themselves as compared with when enjoyment was feigned to conceal negative emotions.
  • (5) When this happens, it is tempting to nod sagely and feign comprehension.
  • (6) But arguably neither is scrapping them, since – even if you could somehow get a political mandate to scrap every private and grammar school in Britain tomorrow – parents would always find a way to game the system; we’d still have selection by house price, or by willingness to feign religious conviction, or some other ingenious new wheeze.
  • (7) Chelsea only briefly threatened to inflict a fourth league defeat of the season on Leicester, Nemanja Matic feigning to shoot from the edge of the area and luring Jeffrey Schlupp to ground as he sought to block.
  • (8) The possibilities of making less errors in analysis are being discussed and the feigned surface pollution is calculated.
  • (9) Johnson is the master-builder of that image, deflecting every lie, every gaffe, dishonesty and U-turn with some self-deprecating metaphor: calling his feigned indecision “veering all over the place like a shopping trolley” was worth a world of worthy platitudes.
  • (10) When Weekly Beast called Stutch he varied his technique, at least feigning politeness.
  • (11) Supporters of the accused men say their alleged crimes were trumped up by a dictatorial regime which feigned openness during the electoral campaign only to brutally suppress dissent when it saw the scale of public anger.
  • (12) The Chinese delegate feigned great offence – and the number stayed, but surrounded by language which makes it all but meaningless.
  • (13) Verbal reports of such pain are considered simply a manifestation of 'feigned' illness.
  • (14) Munchausen's syndrome by proxy is a relatively new diagnosis for a unique form of child abuse that involves a parent who creates or feigns illness in his or her child, and presents a "sick child" to the medical profession for assessment and treatment.
  • (15) Symptom-validity testing has been used to detect feigning in patients claiming sensory and memory deficits.
  • (16) Diverticle formation is feigned by widening, predominantly of the outlets, which could be traced into the muscular wall layers.
  • (17) A description of the aggressive behaviour is given for threatening, fighting and feigned attacking.
  • (18) This ranges across a spectrum from benign use of feigned or alleged symptoms, malingering, conversion reactions and hysterical manifestations to the severe and flamboyant clinical presentation of the Munchausen Syndrome.
  • (19) Asked what his lasting memory of the World Cup would be, Mujica said: “Fifa are a bunch of old sons of bitches.” The president then covered his mouth to feign shock at what he had just said, but when asked if he wanted to rectify his comments, he responded: “Publish it.” Read the full story here .
  • (20) • Pistorius' retching and crying was not feigned , Vorster said: he could not fake pallor .

Pretending


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Pretend

Example Sentences:

  • (1) His anti-politics act may just be a shtick – pretending he's still on Have I Got News for You, satirising politics even though he's right at the centre of it – but it liberates him from the usual constraints.
  • (2) "Obviously [writers in translation] have a disadvantage and there's no sense pretending they don't, of being read in translation," said Gekoski.
  • (3) Tony Abbott pretended to support the renewable energy industry before the election but is now “launching a full-frontal attack” according to Labor’s environment spokesman Mark Butler.
  • (4) The Telegraph's secret taping of Cable and fellow Liberal Democrat ministers while pretending to be concerned constituents has raised eyebrows in some media quarters, but the newspaper has claimed a "clear public interest" defence for its actions.
  • (5) It is hard to tell who has really suffered, and who is only pretending.
  • (6) Respecting the frequency of invalidity this cancer pretends the second place among these diseases.
  • (7) When this parliament votes for another referendum as it inevitably will, thanks to the perpetual crutch that the Greens provide, let’s not pretend it reflects the will of the Scottish people, because it doesn’t.
  • (8) Non-doms could no longer pretend to live in Monaco while living in the UK for four working days a week.
  • (9) But equally, you’re ignoring how these people feel if you try and pretend they don’t feel their area is changing.
  • (10) Additionally, the Schmidt-Furlow investigators looked at instances where female interrogators had fondled prisoners, or pretended to splash menstrual blood upon them.
  • (11) Stewart Lee with a mask made of meat, pretending to be Canadian?
  • (12) Yes, there are other reasons why a boy might take a clock out of its casing & pretend he’d made it.
  • (13) It would be idle to pretend that Cameron doesn't have talents as a leader.
  • (14) Their leaders are charging round the country pretending they are going to get an overall majority, but in their heart of hearts they know it is not true, you can see it in their eyes.” The deputy prime minister, whose party has been in coalition with the Conservatives since 2010, said the next question for the public was “that since neither David Cameron or Ed Miliband are going to walk into Downing Street on their own, who is it the voters want at their side”.
  • (15) By pretending to ignore the scientific evidence, AquaBounty is doing readers a disservice.
  • (16) Pro-Europeans don't do themselves any favours by trying to pretend that it didn't happen.
  • (17) Indeed watching the prime minister singling out unemployed youngsters for uniquely punitive measures while pretending it is for their own good, cheered on by a gang of braying chums, it looks less like the behaviour of a national statesman and more like the petty vindictiveness of a schoolyard bully.
  • (18) And he must not pretend to be ignorant of the consequences of continuing to burn coal or take refuge in a "carbon cap" or some "target" for future emission reductions.
  • (19) During the collection of a one-hour spontaneous language sample from each child the experimenter pretended 20 times not to understand and asked, "What?"
  • (20) He would go around the communities and pretend to have a conversation with people but really his eyes were on the children playing," she says.

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