False

• POS: Adjective, Adverb

CIDE DICTIONARY

False, a. [L. falsus, p. p. of fallere to deceive; cf. OF. faus, fals, F. faux, and AS. fals fraud. See Fail, Fall.].

•  Uttering falsehood; unveracious; given to deceit; dishnest; as, a false witness.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not faithful or loyal, as to obligations, allegiance, vows, etc.; untrue; treacherous; perfidious; as, a false friend, lover, or subject; false to promises.  [1913 Webster]

  "I to myself was false, ere thou to me."  [1913 Webster]
•  Not according with truth or reality; not true; fitted or likely to deceive or disappoint; as, a false statement.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not genuine or real; assumed or designed to deceive; counterfeit; hypocritical; as, false tears; false modesty; false colors; false jewelry.  [1913 Webster]

  "False face must hide what the false heart doth know."  [1913 Webster]
•  Not well founded; not firm or trustworthy; erroneous; as, a false claim; a false conclusion; a false construction in grammar.  [1913 Webster]

  "Whose false foundation waves have swept away."  [1913 Webster]
•  Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are temporary or supplemental.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not in tune.  [1913 Webster]

False arch (Arch.), a member having the appearance of an arch, though not of arch construction. -- False attic, an architectural erection above the main cornice, concealing a roof, but not having windows or inclosing rooms. -- False bearing, any bearing which is not directly upon a vertical support; thus, the weight carried by a corbel has a false bearing. -- False cadence, an imperfect or interrupted cadence. -- False conception (Med.), an abnormal conception in which a mole, or misshapen fleshy mass, is produced instead of a properly organized fetus. -- False croup (Med.), a spasmodic affection of the larynx attended with the symptoms of membranous croup, but unassociated with the deposit of a fibrinous membrane. -- False door or False window (Arch.), the representation of a door or window, inserted to complete a series of doors or windows or to give symmetry. -- False fire, a combustible carried by vessels of war, chiefly for signaling, but sometimes burned for the purpose of deceiving an enemy; also, a light on shore for decoying a vessel to destruction. -- False galena. See Blende. -- False imprisonment (Law), the arrest and imprisonment of a person without warrant or cause, or contrary to law; or the unlawful detaining of a person in custody. -- False keel (Naut.), the timber below the main keel, used to serve both as a protection and to increase the shio's lateral resistance. -- False key, a picklock. -- False leg. (Zoöl.) See Proleg. -- False membrane (Med.), the fibrinous deposit formed in croup and diphtheria, and resembling in appearance an animal membrane. -- False papers (Naut.), documents carried by a ship giving false representations respecting her cargo, destination, etc., for the purpose of deceiving. -- False passage (Surg.), an unnatural passage leading off from a natural canal, such as the urethra, and produced usually by the unskillful introduction of instruments. -- False personation (Law), the intentional false assumption of the name and personality of another. -- False pretenses (Law), false representations concerning past or present facts and events, for the purpose of defrauding another. -- False rail (Naut.), a thin piece of timber placed on top of the head rail to strengthen it. -- False relation (Mus.), a progression in harmony, in which a certain note in a chord appears in the next chord prefixed by a flat or sharp. -- False return (Law), an untrue return made to a process by the officer to whom it was delivered for execution. -- False ribs (Anat.), the asternal rebs, of which there are five pairs in man. -- False roof (Arch.), the space between the upper ceiling and the roof. Oxford Gloss. -- False token, a false mark or other symbol, used for fraudulent purposes. -- False scorpion (Zoöl.), any arachnid of the genus Chelifer. See Book scorpion. -- False tack (Naut.), a coming up into the wind and filling away again on the same tack. -- False vampire (Zoöl.), the Vampyrus spectrum of South America, formerly erroneously supposed to have blood-sucking habits; -- called also vampire, and ghost vampire. The genuine blood-sucking bats belong to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla. See Vampire. -- False window. (Arch.) See False door, above. -- False wing. (Zoöl.) See Alula, and Bastard wing, under Bastard. -- False works (Civil Engin.), construction works to facilitate the erection of the main work, as scaffolding, bridge centering, etc.

False, adv. 

 Not truly; not honestly; falsely.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

False, v. t. [L. falsare to falsify, fr. falsus: cf. F. fausser. See False, a.].

•  To report falsely; to falsify.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]
•  To betray; to falsify.  [1913 Webster]

  "[He] hath his truthe falsed in this wise."  [1913 Webster]
•  To mislead by want of truth; to deceive.  [1913 Webster]

  "In his falsed fancy."  [1913 Webster]
•  To feign; to pretend to make.  Spenser.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

False, adj. & adv.
--adj.
1 not according with fact; wrong, incorrect (a false idea).
2 a spurious, sham, artificial (false gods; false teeth; false modesty). b acting as such; appearing to be such, esp. deceptively (a false lining).
3 illusory; not actually so (a false economy).
4 improperly so called (false acacia).
5 deceptive.
6 (foll. by to) deceitful, treacherous, or unfaithful.
7 illegal (false imprisonment).
--adv. in a false manner (esp. play false).

Idiom

false acacia see ACACIA. false alarm an alarm given needlessly. false bedding Geol. = CROSS-BEDDING. false colours deceitful pretence. false dawn a transient light in the east before dawn. false gharial see GHARIAL. false pretences misrepresentations made with intent to deceive (esp. under false pretences). false rib = floating rib. false start
1 an invalid or disallowed start in a race.
2 an unsuccessful attempt to begin something. false step a slip; a mistake. false topaz = CITRINE.

Derivative

falsely adv. falseness n. falsity n. (pl. -ies).

Etymology

OE fals and OF fals, faus f. L falsus past part. of fallere deceive

THESAURUS

False

Barmecidal, Barmecide, Machiavellian, Tartuffian, Tartuffish, aberrant, abroad, adrift, affected, airy, all abroad, all off, all wrong, ambidextrous, amiss, apostate, apparent, apparitional, artful, artificial, askew, astray, at fault, autistic, awry, backsliding, baseborn, bastard, beguiling, beside the mark, bogus, brummagem, calculating, canting, catchy, chimeric, chiseling, collusive, concocted, contrary to fact, corrupt, counterfeit, counterfeited, covinous, crafty, crooked, cunning, deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, defective, deluding, delusional, delusionary, delusive, delusory, dereistic, derelict, deviant, deviational, deviative, devious, disaffected, dishonest, disloyal, distorted, double, double-dealing, double-faced, double-minded, double-tongued, doublehearted, dreamlike, dreamy, dubious, dummy, duplicitous, errant, erring, erroneous, ersatz, fabricated, factitious, faithless, fake, faked, fallacious, false-principled, falsehearted, fantastic, faultful, faulty, feigned, fickle, fictitious, finagling, fishy, flawed, forged, fraudulent, furtive, goody, goody-goody, guileful, hallucinatory, heretical, heterodox, holier-than-thou, hollow, hypocritical, illegitimate, illogical, illusional, illusionary, illusive, illusory, imaginary, imitation, imprecise, in error, inaccurate, inconstant, incorrect, indirect, inexact, insidious, insincere, invalid, lying, made-up, manufactured, mealymouthed, mendacious, meretricious, misbegotten, miscreated, misleading, mistaken, mock, not right, not true, not true to, of bad faith, off, off the track, ostensible, out, peccant, perfidious, perverse, perverted, phantasmagoric, phantasmal, phantom, pharisaic, phony, pietistic, pinchbeck, pious, pseudo, questionable, recreant, renegade, sanctified, sanctimonious, scheming, seeming, self-contradictory, self-deceptive, self-deluding, self-righteous, sham, sharp, shifty, simulated, slippery, sneaky, snide, sniveling, specious, spectral, spurious, straying, substitute, supposititious, surreptitious, synthetic, traitorous, treacherous, trickish, tricksy, tricky, trothless, truthless, two-faced, unactual, unctuous, underhand, underhanded, unfactual, unfaithful, unfounded, unloyal, unnatural, unorthodox, unproved, unreal, unsound, unsteadfast, unsubstantial, untrue, untrustworthy, untruthful, visionary, wide, wily, wrong

ROGET THESAURUS

False

Undueness

N undueness, malum prohibitum, impropriety, illegality, falseness, emptiness of title, invalidity of title, illegitimacy, loss of right, disfranchisement, forfeiture, usurpation, tort, violation, breach, encroachment, presumption, assumption, seizure, stretch, exaction, imposition, lion's share, usurper, pretender, undue, unlawful, unconstitutional, illicit, unauthorized, unwarranted, disallowed, unallowed, unsanctioned, unjustified, unentitled, disentitled, unqualified, disqualified, unprivileged, unchartered, illegitimate, bastard, spurious, supposititious, false, usurped, tortious, undeserved, unmerited, unearned, unfulfilled, forfeited, disfranchised, improper, unmeet, unfit, unbefitting, unseemly, unbecoming, misbecoming, seemless, contra bonos mores, not the thing, out of the question, not to be thought of, preposterous, pretentious, would-be, filius nullius.

Improbity

N improbity, dishonesty, dishonor, deviation from rectitude, disgrace, fraud, lying, bad faith, Punic faith, mala fides, Punica fides, infidelity, faithlessness, Judas kiss, betrayal, breach of promise, breach of trust, breach of faith, prodition, disloyalty, treason, high treason, apostasy, nonobservance, shabbiness, villainy, villany, baseness, abjection, debasement, turpitude, moral turpitude, laxity, trimming, shuffling, perfidy, perfidiousness, treachery, double dealing, unfairness, knavery, roguery, rascality, foul play, jobbing, jobbery, graft, bribery, venality, nepotism, corruption, job, shuffle, fishy transaction, barratry, sharp practice, heads I win tails you lose, mouth honor, dishonest, dishonorable, unconscientious, unscrupulous, fraudulent, knavish, disgraceful, wicked, false-hearted, disingenuous, unfair, one-sided, double, double- hearted, double-tongued, double-faced, timeserving, crooked, tortuous, insidious, Machiavelian, dark, slippery, fishy, perfidious, treacherous, perjured, infamous, arrant, foul, base, vile, ignominious, blackguard, contemptible, unrespectable, abject, mean, shabby, little, paltry, dirty, scurvy, scabby, sneaking, groveling, scrubby, rascally, pettifogging, beneath one, low-minded, low-thoughted, base-minded, undignified, indign, unbecoming, unbeseeming, unbefitting, derogatory, degrading, infra dignitatem, beneath one's dignity, ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike, unknightly, unchivalric, unmanly, unhandsome, recreant, inglorious, corrupt, venal, debased, mongrel, faithless, of bad faith, false, unfaithful, disloyal, untrustworthy, trustless, trothless, lost to shame, dead to honor, barratrous, dishonestly, mala fide, like a thief in the night, by crooked paths, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, corruptissima respublica plurimae leges.

& Sophistry

N intuition, instinct, association, hunch, gut feeling, presentiment, premonition, rule of thumb, superstition, astrology, faith (supposition), sophistry, paralogy, perversion, casuistry, jesuitry, equivocation, evasion, chicane, chicanery, quiddet, quiddity, mystification, special pleading, speciousness, nonsense, word sense, tongue sense, false reasoning, vicious reasoning, circular reasoning, petitio principii, ignoratio elenchi, post hoc ergo propter hoc, non sequitur, ignotum per ignotius, misjudgment, false teaching, sophism, solecism, paralogism, quibble, quirk, elenchus, elench, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet, inconsistency, antilogy, a delusion, a mockery, and a snare, claptrap, cant, mere words, lame and impotent conclusion, meshes of sophistry, cobwebs of sophistry, flaw in an argument, weak point, bad case, overrefinement, hairsplitting, intuitive, instinctive, impulsive, independent of reason, anterior to reason, gratuitous, hazarded, unconnected, unreasonable, illogical, false, unsound, invalid, unwarranted, not following, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, absonous, absonant, unscientific, untenable, inconclusive, incorrect, fallacious, fallible, groundless, unproved, non sequitur, it does not follow, deceptive, sophistical, jesuitical, illusive, illusory, specious, hollow, plausible, ad captandum, evasive, irrelevant, weak, feeble, poor, flimsy, loose, vague, irrational, nonsensical, foolish, frivolous, pettifogging, quibbling, finespun, overrefined, at the end of one's tether, au bout de son latin, intuitively, by intuition, illogically, non constat, that goes for nothing.

Error

N error, fallacy, misconception, misapprehension, misstanding, misunderstanding, inexactness, laxity, misconstruction, miscomputation, non sequitur, mis-statement, mis-report, mumpsimus, mistake, miss, fault, blunder, quiproquo, cross purposes, oversight, misprint, erratum, corrigendum, slip, blot, flaw, loose thread, trip, stumble, botchery, slip of the tongue, slip of the lip, Freudian slip, slip of the pen, lapsus linguae, clerical error, bull, haplography, illusion, delusion, snare, false impression, false idea, bubble, self-decit, self-deception, mists of error, heresy, hallucination, false light, dream, fable, bias, misleading, erroneous, untrue, false, devoid of truth, fallacious, apocryphal, unreal, ungrounded, groundless, unsubstantial, heretical, unsound, illogical, inexact, unexact inaccurate, incorrect, indefinite, illusive, illusory, delusive, mock, ideal, spurious, deceitful, perverted, controvertible, unsustainable, unauthenticated, untrustworthy, exploded, refuted, discarded, in error, under an error, mistaken, tripping, out, out in one's reckoning, aberrant, beside the mark, wide of the mark, wide of the truth, way off, far off, astray, on a false scent, on the wrong scent, in the wrong box, outside the ballpark, at cross purposes, all in the wrong, all out, more or less, errare est humanum, mentis gratissimus error, on the dubious waves of error tost, to err is human, to forgive divine, you lie -- under a mistake.

Falsehood

N falsehood, falseness, falsity, falsification, deception, untruth, guile, lying, untruth, guile, lying, misrepresentation, mendacity, perjury, false swearing, forgery, invention, fabrication, subreption, covin, perversion of truth, suppression of truth, suppressio veri, perversion, distortion, false coloring, exaggeration, prevarication, equivocation, shuffling, fencing, evasion, fraud, suggestio falsi, mystification, simulation, dissimulation, dissembling, deceit, blague, sham, pretense, pretending, malingering, lip homage, lip service, mouth honor, hollowness, mere show, mere outside, duplicity, double dealing, insincerity, hypocrisy, cant, humbug, jesuitism, jesuitry, pharisaism, Machiavelism, organized hypocrisy, crocodile tears, mealy-mouthedness, quackery, charlatanism, charlatanry, gammon, bun-kum, bumcombe, flam, bam, flimflam, cajolery, flattery, Judas kiss, perfidy, il volto sciolto i pensieri stretti, unfairness, artfulness, misstatement, false, deceitful, mendacious, unveracious, fraudulent, dishonest, faithless, truthless, trothless, unfair, uncandid, hollow-hearted, evasive, uningenuous, disingenuous, hollow, sincere, Parthis mendacior, forsworn, artificial, contrived, canting, hypocritical, jesuitical, pharisaical, tartuffish, Machiavelian, double, double tongued, double faced, double handed, double minded, double hearted, double dealing, Janus faced, smooth-faced, smooth spoken, smooth tongued, plausible, mealy-mouthed, affected, collusive, collusory, artful, perfidious, spurious, untrue, falsified, covinous, falsely, a la tartufe, with a double tongue, silly, blandae mendacia lingua, falsus in uno falsus in omnibus, I give him joy that's awkward at a lie, la mentira tiene las piernas cortas, O what a goodly outside falsehood hath.

Untruth

N untruth, falsehood, lie, story, thing that is not, fib, bounce, crammer, taradiddle, whopper, jhuth, forgery, fabrication, invention, misstatement, misrepresentation, perversion, falsification, gloss, suggestio falsi, exaggeration, invention, fabrication, fiction, fable, nursery tale, romance, absurd story, untrue story, false story, trumped up story, trumped up statement, thing devised by the enemy, canard, shave, sell, hum, traveler's tale, Canterbury tale, cock and bull story, fairy tale, fake, claptrap, press agent's yarn, puff, puffery (exaggeration), myth, moonshine, bosh, all my eye and Betty Martin, mare's nest, farce, irony, half truth, white lie, pious fraud, mental reservation, pretense, pretext, false plea, subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe, sham, profession, empty words, Judas kiss, disguise, untrue, false, phony, trumped up, void of foundation, without- foundation, fictive, far from the truth, false as dicer's oaths, unfounded, ben trovato, invented, fabulous, fabricated, forged, fictitious, factitious, supposititious, surreptitious, elusory, illusory, ironical, soi-disant, se non e vero e ben trovato, where none is meant that meets the ear.