English

Noun

faintness ‎(countable and uncountable, plural faintnesses)

1. The property of being or feeling faint.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 1,

     And he first took exceptions at this badge, / Pronouncing that the paleness of this flower / Bewray'd the faintness of my master's heart.

   • 1738, David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Section 7,

     The confusion, in which impressions are sometimes involved, proceeds only from their faintness and unsteadiness, not from any capacity in the mind to receive any impression, which in its real existence has no particular degree nor proportion.

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Chapter 6,

     The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. It was not the faintness of physical weakness, though confinement and hard fare no doubt had their part in it. Its deplorable peculiarity was, that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago.

   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part Three, Chapter 1,

     The humming sound and the unvarying white light induced a sort of faintness, an empty feeling inside his head.

Synonyms

• faintheartedness
• dimness

Translations

See also

• giddiness
• light-headedness
• vertigo