Reference > Roget’s > International Thesaurus > 544. Falsehood.
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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

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