To feign means to pretend to have a feeling, condition, or quality that you don't actually have. When you feign illness to avoid a test you didn't study for, you act sick even though you feel fine. When someone feigns interest in a boring story, they nod and smile while secretly thinking about something else.

The word usually implies deliberate deception rather than playful pretending. If you're playing pirates with friends and pretend to be wounded, that's just pretending. But if you fake a stomachache to get out of doing chores, you're feigning illness. The difference is in the intent: feigning is about fooling someone to get something you want or to avoid something.

People might feign surprise at a party they knew about all along, or feign ignorance about who ate the last cookie. Athletes sometimes feign injury to draw a penalty against the other team. The word often appears in the phrase feign innocence, meaning to act as if you've done nothing wrong when you actually have.

When you feign something, you're putting on an act. People often get better at noticing when feelings aren't genuine.