Falsehood
Falsehood
#544. Falsehood. -- N. falsehood, falseness; falsity, falsification;
deception &c. 545; untruth &c. 546; guile; lying &c. 454; untruth &c. 546;
guile; lying &c. v. misrepresentation; mendacity, perjury, false swearing;
forgery, invention, fabrication; subreption[obs]; covin[obs].
- perversion of truth, suppression of truth; suppressio veri[Lat];
perversion, distortion, false coloring; exaggeration &c. 549; prevarication,
equivocation, shuffling, fencing, evasion, fraud; suggestio falsi &c. (lie)
546[Lat]; mystification &c. (concealment) 528; simulation &c. (imitation) 19;
dissimulation, dissembling; deceit; blague[obs].
- sham; pretense, pretending, malingering.
- lip homage, lip service; mouth honor; hollowness; mere show, mere
outside; duplicity, double dealing, insincerity, hypocrisy, cant, humbug;
jesuitism, jesuitry; pharisaism; Machiavelism, "organized hypocrisy";
crocodile tears, mealy-mouthedness[obs], quackery; charlatanism[obs],
charlatanry; gammon; bun-kum[obs], bumcombe, flam; bam*[obs], flimflam,
cajolery, flattery; Judas kiss; perfidy &c. (bad faith) 940; il volto
sciolto i pensieri stretti[It].
- unfairness &c. (dishonesty) 940; artfulness &c. (cunning) 702;
misstatement &c. (error) 495.
- V. be false &c. adj., be a liar &c. 548; speak falsely &c. adv.; tell a
lie &c. 546; lie, fib; lie like a trooper; swear false, forswear, perjure
oneself, bear false witness.
- misstate, misquote, miscite[obs], misreport, misrepresent; belie,
falsify, pervert, distort; put a false construction upon &c. (misinterpret)
- prevaricate, equivocate, quibble; palter, palter to the understanding;
repondre en Normand[Fr]; trim, shuffle, fence, mince the truth, beat about
the bush, blow hot and cold, play fast and loose.
- garble, gloss over, disguise, give a color to; give a gloss, put a
gloss, put false coloring upon; color, varnish, cook, dress up, embroider;
varnish right and puzzle wrong; exaggerate &c. 549; blague[obs].
- invent, fabricate; trump up, get up; force, fake, hatch, concoct;
romance &c. (imagine) 515; cry "wolf!'
- dissemble, dissimulate; feign, assume, put on, pretend, make believe;
play possum; play false, play a double game; coquet; act a part, play a
part; affect &c. 855; simulate, pass off for; counterfeit, sham, make a
show of; malinger; say the grapes are sour.
- cant, play the hypocrite, sham Abraham, faire pattes de velours, put
on the mask, clean the outside of the platter, lie like a conjuror; hand
out false colors, hold out false colors, sail under false colors; "commend
the poisoned chalice to the lips" [Macbeth]; ambiguas in vulgum spargere
voces [Lat]; deceive &c. 545.
- Adj. false, deceitful, mendacious, unveracious, fraudulent, dishonest,
faithless, truthless, trothless; unfair, uncandid; hollow-hearted; evasive;
uningenuous, disingenuous; hollow, sincere, Parthis mendacior; forsworn.
- artificial, contrived; canting; hypocritical, jesuitical, pharisaical;
tartuffish; Machiavelian; double, double tongued, double faced, double
handed, double minded, double hearted, double dealing; Janus faced; smooth-
faced, smooth spoken, smooth tongued; plausible; mealy-mouthed; affected &c
855.
- collusive, collusory; artful &c. (cunning) 702; perfidious &c. 940;
spurious &c. (deceptive) 545; untrue &c. 546; falsified &c. v.; covinous.
- Adv. falsely &c. adj.; a la tartufe, with a double tongue; silly &c
(cunning) 702.
- Phr. blandae mendacia lingua[Lat]; falsus in uno falsus in
omnibus[Lat]; "I give him joy that's awkward at a lie" [Young]; la mentira
tiene las piernas cortas [Sp]; "O what a goodly outside falsehood hath"
[Merchant of Venice].