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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



147 words match “FAIN”

FAIN a. 4 definitions
Well-pleased; glad; apt; wont; fond; 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.
FAINEANCE; FAINEANCY n.
Do-nothingness; inactivity; indolence.
FAINEANT a. 2 definitions
Doing nothing; shiftless. -- n.
FAINEANT DEITY n.
A deity recognized as real but conceived as not acting in human affairs, hence not worshiped.
FAINT a. 9 definitions
Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to swoon; as, faint with fatigue, hunger, or thirst.
FAINTHEARTED; FAINT-HEARTED a.
ear; easily discouraged or frightened; cowardly; timorous; dejected. Fear not, neither be faint-hearted. Is. vii. 4. -- Faint"*heart`ed*ly, adv. -- Faint"*heart`ed*ness, n.
FAINTING n.
to the brain, the face becoming pallid, the respiration feeble, and the heat's beat weak. Fainting fit, a fainting or swoon; syncope. [Colloq.]
FAINTISH a.
Slightly faint; somewhat faint. -- Faint"ish*ness, n.
FAINTLING a.
Timorous; feeble-minded. [Obs.] "A fainting, silly creature." Arbuthnot.
FAINTLY adv.
In a faint, weak, or timidmanner.
FAINTNESS n. 4 definitions
The state of being faint; loss of strength, or of consciousness, and self-control.
FAINTS n.
over first and last in the distillation of whisky; -- the former being called the strong faints, and the latter, which is much more abundant, the weak faints. This crude spirit is much impregnated with fusel oil. Ure.
FAINTY a.
Feeble; languid. [R.] Dryden.
ADUMBRANT a.
Giving a faint shadow, or slight resemblance; shadowing forth.
ADUMBRATE v.
To give a faint shadow or slight representation of; to outline; to shadow forth. Both in the vastness and the richness of the visible universe the invisible God is adumbrated. L. Taylor.
ADUMBRATION n.
A faint sketch; an outline; an imperfect portrayal or representation of a thing. Elegant adumbrations of sacred truth. Bp. Horsley.
ADUMBRATIVE a.
Faintly representing; typical. Carlyle.
ALOOF prep.
Away from; clear from. [Obs.] Rivetus . . . would fain work himself aloof these rocks and quicksands. Milton.
APPALL v.
To grow faint; to become weak; to become dismayed or discouraged. [Obs.] Gower.
BATING prep.
cepting. We have little reason to think that they bring many ideas with them, bating some faint ideas of hunger and thirst. Locke.
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