| / English Dictionary |
DECEIT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of deceiving
Synonyms:
deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("deceit" is a kind of...):
falsification; misrepresentation (a willful perversion of facts)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deceit"):
fakery (the act of faking (or the product of faking))
indirection (deceitful action that is not straightforward)
chicane; chicanery; guile; shenanigan; trickery; wile (the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them))
double-dealing; duplicity (acting in bad faith; deception by pretending to entertain one set of intentions while acting under the influence of another)
cheat; cheating (a deception for profit to yourself)
delusion; head game; illusion (the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas)
feigning; pretence; pretending; pretense; simulation (the act of giving a false appearance)
impersonation; imposture (pretending to be another person)
obscurantism (a deliberate act intended to make something obscure)
bluff; four flush (the act of bluffing in poker; deception by a false show of confidence in the strength of your cards)
take-in (the act of taking in as by fooling or cheating or swindling someone)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The quality of being fraudulent
Synonyms:
deceit; fraudulence
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("deceit" is a kind of...):
dishonesty (the quality of being dishonest)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A misleading falsehood
Synonyms:
deceit; deception; misrepresentation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("deceit" is a kind of...):
falsehood; falsity; untruth (a false statement)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deceit"):
equivocation; evasion (a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth)
duplicity; fraudulence (a fraudulent or duplicitous representation)
hanky panky; hocus-pocus; jiggery-pokery; skulduggery; skullduggery; slickness; trickery (verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way)
blind; subterfuge (something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an activity)
dissembling; feigning; pretence; pretense (pretending with intention to deceive)
snow job (a long and elaborate misrepresentation)
exaggeration; magnification; overstatement (making to seem more important than it really is)
facade; window dressing (a showy misrepresentation intended to conceal something unpleasant)
half-truth (a partially true statement intended to deceive or mislead)
humbug; snake oil (communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive)
bill of goods (communication (written or spoken) that persuades someone to accept something untrue or undesirable)
Context examples:
He had previously communicated his plan to the former, who aided the deceit by quitting his house, under the pretence of a journey and concealed himself, with his daughter, in an obscure part of Paris.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Deceit is, indeed, a sad fault in a child, said Mr. Brocklehurst; it is akin to falsehood, and all liars will have their portion in the lake burning with fire and brimstone; she shall, however, be watched, Mrs. Reed.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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