Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual Faculties
Division (II) Communication of Ideas
Section II. Modes of Communication

544. Falsehood.

   NOUN:FALSEHOOD, falseness; falsity, falsification; deception [See Deception]; untruthfulness; untruth [See Untruth]; guile; lying &c. v., misrepresentation; mendacity, perjury, false swearing; forgery, invention, fabrication; subreption; covin [archaic].
  perversion -, suppression- of truth; suppressio veri [L.]; perversion, distortion, false coloring; exaggeration [See Exaggeration]; prevarication, equivocat on, shuffling, fencing, evasion, fraud; suggestio falsi [L.] (lie) [See Untruth]; mystification (concealment) [See Concealment]; simulation (imitation) [See Imitation]; dissimulation, dissembling; deceit; blague [F.].
  SHAM, pretense, pretending, malingering.
  DUPLICITY, double dealing, insincerity, tartufism or tartuffism, hypocrisy, cant, humbug, fake [colloq. or slang]; casuistry, jesuitism, jesuitry; pharisaism; Machiavelism, “organized hypocrisy”; lip -homage, – service; mouth honor; hollowness; mere -show, – outside; crocodile tears, mealy-mouthedness, quackery; charlatanism, charlatanry; gammon [colloq.], buncombe or bunkum, flam; bam [slang], flimflam, cajolery, flattery; Judas kiss; perfidy (bad faith) [See Improbity]; il volto sciolto i pensieri stretti [It.].
  UNFAIRNESS (dishonesty) [See Improbity]; artfulness (cunning) [See Cunning]; missatement (error) [See Error].
   VERB:BE FALSE &c. adj., be a liar [See Deceiver]; speak falsely &c. adv.; tell a lie [See Untruth]; lie, fib; lie like a trooper; swear falsely, forswear, perjure oneself, bear false witness.
  FALSIFY, misstate, misquote, miscite, misreport, misrepresent; belie, pervert, distort; put a false construction upon (misinterpret) [See Misinterpretation].
  PREVARICATE, equivocate, quibble; palter, – to the understanding; répondre en Normand [F.]; trim, shuffle, fence, mince the truth, beat about the bush, blow hot and cold [colloq.], play fast and loose.
  GARBLE, gloss over, disguise, give a color to; give -, put- a -gloss, – false coloring- upon; color, varnish, cook [colloq.], doctor [colloq.], dress up, embroider; exaggerate [See Exaggeration]; blague [F.].
  FABRICATE, invent, trump up, get up; forge, fake [slang], hatch, concoct; romance (imagine) [See Imagination]; cry “wolf!”
  DISSEMBLE, dissimulate; feign, assume, put on, pretend, make believe; act the old soldier [colloq.], play possum; play -false, – a double game; coquet; act -, play- a part; affect [See Affectation]; simulate, pass off for; counterfeit, sham, make a show of; malinger; say the grapes are sour.
  cant [dial. Eng.], play the hypocrite, sham Abram or Abraham, faire pattes de velours [F.], put on the mask, clean the outside of the platter, lie like a conjuror; hand out -, hold out -, sail under- false colors; “commend the poisoned chalice to the lips” [Macbeth]; spargere voces in vulgum ambiguas [Vergil]; deceive [See Deception].
   ADJECTIVE:FALSE, deceitful, mendacious, unveracious, fraudulent, dishonest; faithless, truthless, untruthful, trothless [archaic]; unfair, uncandid; hollow-hearted; evasive; uningenuous, disingenuous; hollow, insincere, Parthis mendacior [L.]; forsworn.
  collusive, collusory [obs.]; artful (cunning) [See Cunning]; perfidious [See Improbity]; spurious (deceptive) [See Deception]; untrue [See Untruth]; falsified &c. v.; covinous.
  HYPOCRITICAL, canting, jesuitical, pharisaical; tartufish or tartuffish; Machiavellic, Machiavellian or Machiavelian; double, -tongued, -handed, -minded, -hearted, -dealing; two-faced, double-faced; Janus-faced; smooth -faced, -spoken, -tongued; plausible; mealy-mouthed; affected [See Affectation].
   ADVERB:FALSELY &c. adj.; à la Tartufe [F.], with a double tongue; slily (cunning) [See Cunning].
   QUOTATIONS:

1. Blandæ mendacia linguæ falsus in uno falsus in omnibus.
2. I give him joy that’s awkward at a lie.—Young
3. La mentira tiene las piernas cortas.—Sp.
4. O what a goodly outside falsehood hath!—Merchant of Venice
5. Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under ’t.—Macbeth
6. A Hair perhaps divides the False and True.—Omar Khayyàm—Fitzgerald
7. Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.—Holmes