subterfuge
an artifice or expedient used to evade a rule, escape a consequence, hide something, etc.
Origin of subterfuge
1Other words for subterfuge
Words Nearby subterfuge
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use subterfuge in a sentence
Karen doesn’t have to keep up the subterfuge by returning through the same door.
Some people go to extreme lengths to soothe their neurotic dogs | John Kelly | July 21, 2021 | Washington PostAcross eight episodes, the drama explores the perspectives of various family members engaged in personal feuds and business subterfuge.
She sought out affairs that required subterfuge and lies, then sabotaged them with open infidelities.
Patricia Highsmith’s sordid search for inspiration | Wendy Smith | January 20, 2021 | Washington PostThey were built so users could share banal life updates or pictures, their founders never anticipating their products would one day contribute to an attempted subterfuge of American democracy.
The deception, sabotage, and subterfuge continue throughout his quest to retake his home, and serve to spread the legend of “the Ghost,” a fallen samurai who has risen to exact revenge on the Mongol army.
The websites, subterfuge, and paid surrogates cost them money.
Delving into why this slaughter never happened uncovers a story of spy-craft, subterfuge and tightly-kept secrets.
So why, after a year of careful subterfuge, did Harry decide to publicly embrace Cressida on Wednesday morning?
The witnesses were used in the worst possible way, as a sort of subterfuge to play on emotions.
Claude Lanzmann on 'Shoah', His Memoir, and the Banality of Evil | Clémence Boulouque | June 11, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThe best way to dismantle Israel as a Jewish state is through subterfuge.
"Only as a sister should think of an absent brother," returned Dorothy, ashamed of the subterfuge.
The World Before Them | Susanna MoodieI never feared any thing but guilt, and I will not purchase life at the expense of a base subterfuge.
Madame Roland, Makers of History | John S. C. AbbottNecessity drove me to subterfuge: I pretended total inability to distinguish the needles.
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist | Alexander BerkmanHe passionately denounced the surrender, the "policy of subterfuge and crooked ways," which threatened to founder Italy.
The Life of Mazzini | Bolton KingThis was too transparent a subterfuge to deceive one even so unaccustomed to life in these solitudes as Jack Dudley.
Two Boys in Wyoming | Edward S. Ellis
British Dictionary definitions for subterfuge
/ (ˈsʌbtəˌfjuːdʒ) /
a stratagem employed to conceal something, evade an argument, etc
Origin of subterfuge
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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