subterfuge

3 definitions found

subterfuge - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Subterfuge \Sub"ter*fuge\, n. [F., from LL. subterfugium, fr. L.
     subterfugere to flee secretly, to escape; subter under +
     fugere to flee. See Fugitive.]
     That to which one resorts for escape or concealment; an
     artifice employed to escape censure or the force of an
     argument, or to justify opinions or conduct; a shift; an
     evasion.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Affect not little shifts and subterfuges, to avoid the
           force of an argument.                    --I. Watts.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           By a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render this
           position safe by rendering it nugatory.  --Burke.
     [1913 Webster]

subterfuge - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  subterfuge
      n 1: something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an
           activity; "he wasn't sick--it was just a subterfuge"; "the
           holding company was just a blind" [syn: subterfuge,
           blind]

subterfuge - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  203 Moby Thesaurus words for "subterfuge":
     airtight secrecy, alibi, apology, art, artful dodge, artifice,
     bag of tricks, bamboozlement, befooling, bickering, blind, bluff,
     bluffing, boggling, bosey, burial, burying, calculated deception,
     captiousness, catch, caviling, cheat, chicane, chicanery, chouse,
     circumvention, cloak, close secrecy, closeness, clouding, color,
     concealedness, concealment, conning, conspiracy, contrivance, coup,
     cover, cover story, cover-up, covering, covering up, covertness,
     craft, crypticness, curve, curve-ball, cute trick, darkening,
     deceit, deceiving, deception, deceptiveness, defrauding, delusion,
     delusiveness, design, device, dirty deal, dirty trick,
     discreetness, discretion, dishonesty, dodge, dodging,
     double-dealing, dupery, enmeshment, ensnarement, entanglement,
     entrapment, equivocation, evasion, evasiveness, excuse, expedient,
     facade, fakement, fallaciousness, fallacy, falseness, fast deal,
     feint, fencing, fetch, ficelle, flimflam, flimflammery,
     fond illusion, fooling, fraud, front, gambit, game, gimmick, gloss,
     googly, grift, guise, hairsplitting, hallucination, handle,
     hedging, hiddenness, hiding, hocus-pocus, hoodwinking,
     hugger-mugger, hugger-muggery, illusion, interment, intrigue,
     invisibility, joker, juggle, jugglery, kidding, knavery,
     lame excuse, little game, locus standi, logic-chopping, maneuver,
     mask, masking, mirage, move, mystification, nit-picking,
     obscuration, obscurement, occultation, ostensible motive,
     outwitting, overreaching, paltering, parrying, pass, pettifoggery,
     phantasm, plot, ploy, poor excuse, pretense, pretension, pretext,
     prevarication, protestation, public motive, pussyfooting, put-off,
     putting away, putting on, quibbling, racket, red herring, refuge,
     ruse, scheme, screen, screening, scurvy trick, secrecy, secretion,
     secretiveness, secretness, self-deception, semblance, sham, shift,
     shifting, show, shuffling, sidestepping, sleight, sleight of hand,
     sleight-of-hand trick, smoke screen, snow job, song and dance,
     spoofery, spoofing, stalking-horse, stratagem, strategy, swindling,
     tactic, tergiversation, the dark, trichoschistism, trick, trickery,
     trickiness, tricking, uncommunicativeness, varnish, veil,
     victimization, vision, wile, willful misconception, wily device,
     wishful thinking