| / English Dictionary |
DECEPTION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers
Synonyms:
conjuration; conjuring trick; deception; illusion; legerdemain; magic; magic trick; thaumaturgy; trick
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("deception" is a kind of...):
performance (the act of presenting a play or a piece of music or other entertainment)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deception"):
card trick (a trick performed with playing cards)
prestidigitation; sleight of hand (manual dexterity in the execution of tricks)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The act of deceiving
Synonyms:
deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("deception" is a kind of...):
falsification; misrepresentation (a willful perversion of facts)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deception"):
take-in (the act of taking in as by fooling or cheating or swindling someone)
bluff; four flush (the act of bluffing in poker; deception by a false show of confidence in the strength of your cards)
obscurantism (a deliberate act intended to make something obscure)
impersonation; imposture (pretending to be another person)
feigning; pretence; pretending; pretense; simulation (the act of giving a false appearance)
delusion; head game; illusion (the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas)
cheat; cheating (a deception for profit to yourself)
double-dealing; duplicity (acting in bad faith; deception by pretending to entertain one set of intentions while acting under the influence of another)
chicane; chicanery; guile; shenanigan; trickery; wile (the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them))
indirection (deceitful action that is not straightforward)
fakery (the act of faking (or the product of faking))
Derivation:
deceive (cause someone to believe an untruth)
deceive (be false to; be dishonest with)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A misleading falsehood
Synonyms:
deceit; deception; misrepresentation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("deception" is a kind of...):
falsehood; falsity; untruth (a false statement)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deception"):
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)
Derivation:
deceive (be false to; be dishonest with)
Context examples:
Till she had shed many tears over this deception, Fanny could not subdue her agitation; and the dejection which followed could only be relieved by the influence of fervent prayers for his happiness.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
“So the greater honeyguide is a master of deception and exploitation as well as cooperation – a proper Jekyll and Hyde of the bird world.”
(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Johnson must have joined him immediately, so that his abject and grovelling conduct on deck for the past few days had been no more than planned deception.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Poor little souls, they will have a hard time, I'm afraid, but they won't suffer, and it will do them good, she said, producing the more palatable viands with which she had provided herself, and disposing of the bad breakfast, so that their feelings might not be hurt, a motherly little deception for which they were grateful.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The deception could not continue after this; and an explanation immediately took place, by which both gained considerable amusement for the moment, without any material loss of happiness to either, for Mrs. Jennings only exchanged one form of delight for another, and still without forfeiting her expectation of the first.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
The general had had nothing to accuse her of, nothing to lay to her charge, but her being the involuntary, unconscious object of a deception which his pride could not pardon, and which a better pride would have been ashamed to own.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I might, it is true, have reversed my boots, as I have done on similar occasions, but the sight of three sets of tracks in one direction would certainly have suggested a deception.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was so humiliating to reflect on the constant deception practised on her father and Elizabeth; to consider the various sources of mortification preparing for them!
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Her mind, disposition, opinions, and habits wanted no half-concealment, no self-deception on the present, no reliance on future improvement.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Villainy is the matter; baseness is the matter; deception, fraud, conspiracy, are the matter; and the name of the whole atrocious mass is—HEEP!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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