phony
or pho·ney
[foh-nee]
- not real or genuine; fake; counterfeit: a phony diamond.
- false or deceiving; not truthful; concocted: a phony explanation.
- insincere or deceitful; affected or pretentious: a phony sales representative.
Show More
- something that is phony; a counterfeit or fake.
- an insincere, pretentious, or deceitful person: He thought my friends were a bunch of phonies.
Show More
- to falsify; counterfeit; fabricate (often followed by up): to phony up a document.
Show More
Origin of phony
1895–1900; perhaps alteration and respelling of fawney (slang) finger ring (< Irish fsptáinne), if taken to mean “false” in the phrase fawney rig a confidence game in which a brass ring is sold as a gold one
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.com-phony
- a combining form used in the formation of abstract nouns corresponding to nouns ending in -phone: telephony.
Show More
Origin of -phony
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for phony
Contemporary Examples
Surely they believe as well that the very concept of an ethnic nation “chosen” by God is phony and unjust.
This single program alone has generated tens of thousands of phony Twitterers.
Your Fake Followers Are Catfishing You: Bacon Mavens, Newt’s Fake Fans, and Other Social Media ScamsCharles Seife
July 3, 2014
In 2012, Facebook announced that 83 million profiles—pushing 10 percent of the total number on the site—were phony.
Your Fake Followers Are Catfishing You: Bacon Mavens, Newt’s Fake Fans, and Other Social Media ScamsCharles Seife
July 3, 2014
Of course, the incentive for the Gingrich team would be not to delete the phony accounts.
Your Fake Followers Are Catfishing You: Bacon Mavens, Newt’s Fake Fans, and Other Social Media ScamsCharles Seife
July 3, 2014
Just like refusing vaccines will do nothing to reverse these changes, neither will phony detoxifying remedies.
Historical Examples
I looks at him, and then, thinking of the phony money, I looks at Durks.
Sonnie-Boy's PeopleJames B. Connolly
Their phony history was set up to deceive their own people as well as others.
Cubs of the WolfRaymond F. Jones
And you knew, right away, that Swami was a phony from Flatbush.
Sense from Thought DivideMark Irvin Clifton
For there's nothin' phony about my new Uncle Kyrle, take it from me!
Torchy, Private Sec.Sewell Ford
Say, Tuttle, you know you can't work any 'phony deal on the Corrugated.
TorchySewell Ford
phony
- a variant spelling (esp US) of phoney
Show More
-phony
- indicating a specified type of soundcacophony; euphony
Show More
Word Origin
from Greek -phōnia, from phōnē sound
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for phony
adj.
also phoney, "not genuine," 1899, perhaps an alteration of fawney "gilt brass ring used by swindlers."
His most successful swindle was selling "painted" or "phony" diamonds. He had a plan of taking cheap stones, and by "doctoring" them make them have a brilliant and high class appearance. His confederates would then take the diamonds to other pawnbrokers and dispose of them. ["The Jewelers Review," New York, April 5, 1899]
The noun meaning "phony person or thing" is attested from 1902.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
-phony
- Sound:microphony.
Show More
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.