dissimulate
Americanverb (used with object)
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dissimulates,
present (3rd person singular)
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dissimulated,
past participle, past
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dissimulating
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
dissimulates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dissimulated,
past participle, past
-
dissimulating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dissimulatesimple
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dissimulatessimple
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have dissimulatedperfect
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has dissimulatedperfect
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am dissimulatingprogressive
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are dissimulatingprogressive
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is dissimulatingprogressive
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have been dissimulatingperfect progressive
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has been dissimulatingperfect progressive
Past
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dissimulatedsimple
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had dissimulatedperfect
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was dissimulatingprogressive
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were dissimulatingprogressive
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had been dissimulatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dissimulate
First recorded in 1525–35, dissimulate is from the Latin word dissimulātus (past participle of dissimulāre to feign). See dis- 1, simulate
Explanation
Your wife gave you socks for Christmas and you smiled happily and kissed her? You, my friend, know how to dissimulate — that is, cover up your true feelings. Unless you happen to really, really like socks. Sometimes confused with dissimilar, meaning "not alike", or "different," or a form of simulate, meaning "to pretend to do or feel something." Being able to dissimulate is a useful trick, not just if your wife gives you socks. After all, the whole political process depends on it. As Louis XI once said, "He who knows not how to dissimulate, can not reign." Wikipedia would probably agree with that.
Vocabulary lists containing dissimulate
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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The Prince
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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.
See Examples For:
But the Gift’s double-sided sword–ness also justifies the regime’s turning of Wakanda into an encrypted nation, a nation projecting a simulated self in order to dissimulate.
From Slate ● Feb. 20, 2018
Aspirants to public office in the US may well dissimulate, but in a wide-open cultural landscape, with only the occasional ironic outcropping, there's hardly anywhere for them to hide.
From BBC ● Jan. 4, 2013
He knew how to dissimulate his intentions so well that the Orsini themselves, through Lord Paulo, reconciled themselves with him.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
I, thinking it improper for a noble even in captivity to dissimulate, denied out of hand.
From Hania by Henryk Sienkiewicz
The thing is to play his part well, and to know when to feign and dissimulate.
From The Pocket Bible or Christian the Printer A Tale of the Sixteenth Century by Eug?ne Sue
Some hatred, weak and without self-confidence, or seeking the effect of surprise, is hypocritical, dissimulates, affects friendly feeling, rubs its hands over insults and awaits the opportune moment.
From The Foundations of Personality by Abraham Myerson
Monk, who combines virtue with tact, dissimulates at first, then suddenly at the head of his troops dissolves the rebel parliament, and re-establishes the king on the throne.
From The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo
I am certain she dissimulates her affection for you with greater care than you take to multiply proofs of yours for her.
From Life, Letters, and Epicurean Philosophy of Ninon de L'Enclos The Celebrated Beauty of the Seventeenth Century by William Hassell Overton
At his age a man no longer dissimulates in his own family; he became more and more thoughtful, serious, and grieved as the hour approached when he would be forced to meet his civil death.
From The Alkahest by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
Other artists dissimulated their debts to French painting or let critics bury them.
From Time Magazine Archive
"It isn't my acquaintance with him," Milly smiled, "that she has dissimulated."
From The Wings of the Dove, Volume 1 of 2 by Henry James
Yet when Bolingbroke afterwards met Warburton he dissimulated: he used the language of compliment, but in a tone which claimed homage.
From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Isaac Disraeli
Hitherto Masamune had dissimulated for reasons of state, hoping that he would be allowed to send one ship from his kingdoms to Nueva España, where he had large interests.
Everyday influences, even the smallest and most dissimulated, are often the most efficacious.
From The Sexual Question A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study by Auguste Forel
I’m sure Vikram has a high IQ, but did not display good judgment in dissimulating to me.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
Simply wishing Weinstein away would be too easy; it would also be in keeping with the industry’s history of erasing its wrongs with plastic smiles and dissimulating public relations.
From New York Times ● Feb. 25, 2020
She herself was dissimulating each day, biding her time until she could just get out.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 26, 2019
On the contrary, it is the very heart of society's real unreality, capable of infinitely executing itself, and endlessly dissimulating the absence of the real.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2018
Since thus it is, sir, and the emperor makes war upon you covertly, it must be made upon him overtly, without concealing one's game or dissimulating at all.
From A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 4 by Robert Black
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.
