To feign is to present a false appearance of something. I did this a lot as a child and feigned illness to avoid going to school. You see this in some movies mostly, but sometimes one character might feign an attack, usually a punch, against another character to intimidate and scare them. Or in a battle you might feign a retreat to lure the enemy into a false sense of confidence and draw their advance. The word comes from Middle English fain, fayn or fein meaning to conceal, disguise, or create false pretenses. It poppued up in the mid 1100’s and stuck around. Good word if you ask me.