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nd; inclined. Men and birds are fain of climbing high. Shak. To a busy man, temptation is fainto climb up together with his business. Jer. Taylor.

To sink; to languish; to become feeble or faint; as, our spirits rise and fall with our fortunes.

igor, or efficiency in action or expression; not full, loud, bright, strong, rapid, etc.; faint; as, a feeble color; feeble motion. "A lady's feeble voice." Shak.

To make suddenly or temporarily red or rosy, as if suffused with blood. How faintly flushed. how phantom fair, Was Monte Rosa, hanging there! Tennyson.

of animation or life in, from lack of heat; to give the sensation of cold to; to chill. A faint, cold fear runs through my veins, That almost freezes up the heat of life. Shak.

Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea. Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Poe.

To give feeble or scattered rays of light; to shine faintly; to show a faint, unsteady light; as, the glimmering dawn; a glimmering lamp. The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day. Shak.

Faint, unsteady light; a glimmer. South.

A faint idea; an inkling.

Twilight (of morning or evening); the gloaming. When the faint glooming in the sky First lightened into day. Trench. The balmy glooming, crescent-lit. Tennyson.

A state of exhaustion; faintness, especially as resulting from hunger. [Colloq. U. S.]

To cough faintly and frequently, or in a short, broken manner; as, a hacking cough.

of the genus Sonchus, or sow thistle; -- so called because hares are said to eat it when fainting with heat. Dr. Prior. -- Jumping hare. (Zoöl.) See under Jumping. -- Little chief hare, or Crying hare. (Zoöl.) See Chief hare. -- Sea hare. (Zoöl.) See Aplysia.

property or means of comfortable subsistence; needy; poor; in want; necessitous. Indigent faint souls past corporal toil. Shak. Charity consists in relieving the indigent. Addison.

Obscure to the mind or senses; not clear; not definite; confused; imperfect; faint; as, indistinct vision; an indistinct sound; an indistinct idea or recollection. When we come to parts too small four our senses, our ideas of these little bodies become obscure and indistinct. I. Watts. Their views, indeed, are indistin…

an insipid composition. Flat, insipid, and ridiculous stuff to him. South. But his wit is faint, and his salt, if I may dare to say so, almost insipid. Dryden.

To cause to lean; to incline; to support or rest. Mrs. Browning. His fainting limbs against an oak he leant. Dryden.

leer malign Eyed them askance. Milton. She gives the leer of invitation. Shak. Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer. Pope.

Tending to swoon; fainting. [Written also leipothymic.]

Pertaining, or given, to swooning; fainting.