deception

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Misrepresentation

Nouns

1. (act of deceiving) deception, deceptiveness; falseness, falsehood, untruth; imposition, imposture, misinformation, disinformation; fraud, fraudulence, deceit, deceitfulness, speciousness, guile, bluff; bad or rubber check, bad paper; knavery (see cunning). See error.

2. (something deceptive) delusion, illusion, gullery; juggling, jugglery; sleight of hand, legerdemain, prestidigitation, magic (see sorcery); trickery, chicanery; cozenage, circumvention, collusion; treachery (see improbity); practical joke, trick, hoax, cheat, blind, feint, plant; bubble (see imagination); fetch, catch, juggle, reach, hocus, hokey-pokey, fake, hanky-panky, blarney; weasel words; fine print; thimble-rig, card-sharping, artful dodge, swindle, racket, shell game; stratagem, artifice. Slang, sell, spoof, con or badger game, [flim]flam, gyp, scam, sting, dipsydoodle, fast one, head trip, jay, snow job, gig, honeyfuggle.

3. (deception meant to entrap) snare, trap, springe, gin, decoy, come-on; bait, decoy duck, baited trap (see attraction); mousetrap, beartrap, steel trap, mantrap; cobweb, net, toils; trapdoor, sliding panel, false bottom; spring-net, spring-gun, masked battery; booby trap. Slang, clip joint.

4. (something meant to fool one) mockery, imitation, counterfeit, sham, make-believe, forgery, fraud, fake, lie; hollow mockery; whited sepulcher; tinsel, paste, false or counterfeit jewelry, glass; man of straw; ormolu; jerrybuilding; mirage; wooden nutmeg, German silver; Britannia metal, Potemkin village. Informal, phony. Slang, goldbrick.

5. (one who deceives) deceiver, trickster, sharper, swindler, liar, snake [in the grass]; humbug, charlatan, quack, mountebank, fast talker; impostor, fraud, fake[r], sham, hoax[er], cheat; pretender, Judas; wolf in sheep's clothing; magician, conjuror; dodger, swindler, etc. Slang, con man, four-flusher, ringer, hoser, shyster, deadbeat, yaffner, cunt or cock teaser, flimp, shicer, chiaus. See stealing, improbity.

6. (one deceived) dupe, gull, victim, monkey. Informal, con artist, sucker, chump. Slang, pigeon, joe, mark, quack, tool, schlemiel, sap, easy touch. See credulity.

Verbs

1. deceive, take in; defraud, cheat, jockey, cozen, fleece, nab, play one false, do in, bilk, bite, pluck, swindle, hustle, victimize, gull, hoax, dupe, take, rope in; stuff the ballot box; abuse, mystify, blind one's eyes; kid; blindfold, hoodwink, take for a ride; throw dust into the eyes; impose, practice, play, put, palm, or foist upon; snatch a verdict; palm off; circumvent, overreach, outreach, outwit, outmaneuver, finagle, get around, cross up; steal a march upon, give the go-by, leave in the lurch. Informal, gouge, slip one over on, diddle. Slang, clip, give the runaround, chisel, con, do a number on, jive, murphy, stiff, take to the cleaners, cuckold, fuck [over], hump, jape, pimp someone over, pull someone's dick, screw, scrog, trim, yentz.

2. (entrap) set or lay a trap, lay a snare for; bait the hook, spread the toils, decoy, lure, beguile, delude, inveigle, suck in; hook, trick, entrap, ensnare, throw a curve, trip up; nick, springe; catch in a trap; hocus, practice on one's credulity, fool, befool, pull the wool over one's eyes, pull one's leg; humbug, bamboozle, flimflam, bilk, put one or something over (on), hand a person a lemon, lead up the garden path, work the rabbit's foot on, take for a sleigh ride; stuff up, sell; play a trick upon; play a practical joke upon; send on a fool's errand, make a game of, make a fool of, make an April fool of, make an ass of; come over, dissemble, lie (see falsehood); misinform, brainwash, mislead (see error); throw off the scent; betray. Slang, fourflush, finesse, sandbag, fake on.

3. (act to deceive) load the dice, stack the cards or deck; live by one's wits, play at hide-and-seek, play possum, play the fox; obtain money under false pretenses (see stealing); conjure, juggle, practice chicanery; pass, palm, foist, or fob off.

Adjectives

1. deceived, caught; hoist with one's own petard. Slang, shot through the grease.

2. deceiving, guileful, cunning, deceptive, deceitful, devious, delusive, delusory, colored; illusive, illusory; elusive, insidious; untrue (see falsehood); mock, sham, make-believe, counterfeit, pseudo, spurious, so-called, pretended, feigned, trumped up, bogus, fraudulent, tricky, factitious, artificial, bastard, fake; surreptitious, underhand[ed], illegitimate, contraband, adulterated, sophisticated; unsound, rotten at the core; disguised, meretricious; tinsel, pinchbeck; catchpenny; brummagem; simulated, plated. Informal, doctored, phony. Slang, jive-ass, full of shit.

Adverbs — deceptively, etc.; under false colors, under cover of; behind one's back, cunningly; slyly; on the sly.

Phrases — deceit is a lie that wears a smile; all done with mirrors; all that glitters is not gold; never give a sucker an even break.

Quotations — O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive! (Sir Walter Scott), You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time (Abraham Lincoln), The Devil can cite the Scripture for his purpose (Shakespeare), The world is still deceived with ornament (Shakespeare).

Antonyms, see probity, truth.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [The practice of deceiving]

Syn. trickery, double-dealing, deceit, dishonesty, fraud, chicanery, subterfuge, duplicity, mendacity, untruth, dupery, insincerity, indirection, craftiness, circumvention, juggling, defraudation, treachery, treason, betrayal, pretense, disinformation, falsehood, trickiness, trumpery, beguilement, cozenage, humbug, hypocrisy, lying, sophism, deceitfulness, equivocation, prevarication, cunning, artifice, guile, misleading, deceiving, imposture, imposition, bamboozlement, snow job*, skullduggery*, flimflam*, blarney*, hanky-panky*; see also dishonesty , hypocrisy .

Ant. honesty*, frankness, sincerity.

2. [A deceptive act]

Syn. hoax, swindle, fraud; see trick 1 .

Syn.- deception is applied to anything that deceives, whether by design or illusion; fraud suggests deliberate deception in dishonestly depriving a person of property, rights, etc.; subterfuge suggests an artifice or stratagem used to hide one's true objective, to evade something, or to gain some end; trickery implies the use of tricks or ruses in deceiving others; chicanery implies the use of clever but tricky talk or action, esp. in legal actions

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

lie, fraud, trick, chicane, deceit, hoax, sham, subterfuge, artifice, treachery, ruse, imposture, sleight of hand, con.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. The act or practice of deceiving: cunning, deceit, deceitfulness, double-dealing, duplicity, guile, shiftiness. See HONEST. 2. An indirect, usually cunning means of gaining an end: artifice, device, dodge, feint, gimmick, imposture, jig, maneuver, ploy, ruse, sleight, stratagem, subterfuge, trick, wile. Informal: shenanigan, take-in. See HONEST, MEANS.