Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of delusive
First recorded in 1595–1605; delus(ion) + -ive
Explanation
If you are a C student, and your guidance counselor tells you to apply to MIT and Harvard, his advice may be delusive, or not based in fact, giving a false impression. Your delusive hopes might tempt you to look away from reality, but if you believe delusive statements, you are deluded. What you believe in might be called a delusion. All of these words come from the Latin deludere which means "to play false, deceive." Also related to this word: Ludicrous. When you fall for a delusive idea, you are sometimes seen as ludicrous.
Vocabulary lists containing delusive
"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" by Patrick Henry (1775)
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Speech to the Virginia Convention
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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Supporters of #MeToo have, on occasion, adhered to this idea in a sort of delusive optimism.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 10, 2018
Begin, Descartes wrote, by doubting absolutely everything you know, think, and perceive; assume that it is all delusive, as in a dream.
From The New Yorker • Aug. 29, 2016
Condemned to Hope’s delusive mine, As on we toil from day to day, By sudden blasts, or slow decline, Our social comforts drop away.
From Slate • Feb. 18, 2015
But how did Jackson arrive at this extreme point of delusive self-fashioning?
From The Guardian • Apr. 23, 2010
This is but a grazing of the ark on Ararat--a delusive omen of the subsiding of the waters.
From My Lords of Strogue, Vol. I (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Wingfield, Lewis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
