Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A swoon; the act of swooning.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Syncope, or loss of consciousness owing to a sudden arrest of the blood supply to the brain, the face becoming pallid, the respiration feeble, and the heat's beat weak.
  • noun [Colloq.] a fainting or swoon; syncope.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An act of collapsing to a state to temporary unconsciousness.
  • verb Present participle of faint.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • That's where former President George Bush has a few words to let everyone know he says that he's feeling just fine after what he calls a fainting spell last night.

    CNN Transcript - Special Event: Former President Bush Comments on His Health After Hospital Stay - February 25, 2000 2000

  • "It sounds like you had what we call a fainting spell where I'm from," Federal Magistrate Judge Dennis Howell said.

    CITIZEN-TIMES.com - News 2008

  • The symptoms may include fainting from the block in the electrical conduction, or fatigue from inability of the heart to pump enough blood to the body and backward flow through the leaky valve.

    Congenitally Corrected Transposition of the Great Arteries (CCTGA) 2010

  • In the mornings, when he first put his weight upon it, his head went dizzy, and he was near to fainting from the pain; but later on in the day it usually grew numb, to recommence when he crawled into his blankets and tried to sleep.

    THE ONE THOUSAND DOZEN 2010

  • In a majority of cases, fainting is not a sign of a dangerous medical condition.

    Syncope (Fainting) in Children and Teenagers 2010

  • In Rousseau's novel fainting is part of the construction of the figure of the woman of feeling as an object of male fantasy, which construction makes Julie either physically or mentally absent from almost all intense moments of sexual intimacy.

    Ildiko Csengei 2008

  • In both stories, the heroine's fainting is occasioned by a threat to the life of the man she loves — knowingly or unknowingly; yet social restrictions do not allow her to admit and express this feeling.

    Ildiko Csengei 2008

  • J.D. develops a condition which results in fainting and blackouts and Eliot and Turk debate over whose turn it is to care for a down-on-his-luck resident.

    Jenny’s This Week on TV | the TV addict 2007

  • GAINING A NEW PERSEPECTIVE — MICHAEL WESTON (‘THE LAST KISS’) GUEST STARS — When J.D. (Zach Braff) develops vasovagal syncope, a condition which results in fainting or blackouts, he finds himself not only having to deal with losing his girlfriend and his apartment, but also his consciousness.

    NBC SWEETENS FEBRUARY WITH 28 DAYS OF COMEDY, DRAMA, GAMESMANSHIP, VALENTINES — AND AN ARRAY OF GUEST STARS | the TV addict 2007

  • My body was very sore with headache and high fever, the accompaniments of a sharp attack of dysentery which had troubled me along the march and had laid me out twice that day in short fainting fits, when the more difficult parts of the climb had asked too much of my strength.

    Seven Pillars of Wisdom Thomas Edward 2003

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