Subterfuge

Definition: Subterfuge

Subterfuge

Noun

1. Something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an activity; "he wasn't sick--it was just a subterfuge"; "the holding company was just a blind".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "subterfuge" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Etymology: Subterfuge \Sub"ter*fuge\, noun. [French expression, from late Latin subterfugium, from the Latin expression subterfugere to flee secretly, to escape; subter under fugere to flee. See Fugitive.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonym: Subterfuge

Cunning

Art, artifice; device, machination; plot; (plan); maneuver, stratagem, dodge, sidestep, artful dodge, wile; trick, trickery; (deception); ruse, ruse de guerre; finesse, side blow, thin end of the wedge, shift, go by, subterfuge, evasion; white lie; (untruth); juggle, tour de force; tricks of the trade, tricks upon travelers; espieglerie; net, trap.

Dissuasion

Noun: pretext, pretense, pretension, plea; allegation, advocation; ostensible motive, ostensible ground, ostensible reason, phony reason; excuse; (vindication); subterfuge; color; gloss, guise, cover.

Reasoning,

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".

Untruth

Pretense, pretext; false plea; subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe; sham; (deception).

Crosswords: Subterfuge

French (subterfuge).

Books

• San Diego Subterfuge (reference)

• Sex and Subterfuge (reference)

• Sex and subterfuge : women novelists to 1850 (reference)

• Subterfuge (reference)

• Subterfuge et sortilège (reference)

  (more book examples)

Theater & Movies

• Subterfuge (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music

• Machine Man / Subterfuge [CD-SINGLE] [ENHANCED] [IMPORT] (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

He cared little that he was in mortal sin, that his life had grown to be a tissue of subterfuge and falsehood.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Albanian

hile (chicane, deception, fraud, overreach, ruse, trick, wangle), dredhi (art, artifice, cop out, dodge, duplicity, finesse, gimmick, guile, machination, overreach, pass, ploy, trick, trickery, wangle, wile, wiliness). (various references)

Arabic 

‏حيلة (artifice, deceit, device, dodge, expedient, fetch, finesse, fraud, gag, imposition, makeshift, monkey business, ploy, prank, ruse, sleight, stalking horse, stratagem, trick, twist, wile), ‏ذريعة (cloak, expedience, expediency, plea, pretence, pretension, pretext, resource, stalking horse), ‏خدعة (artifice, deception, dodge, fetch, fraud, gag, hoax, ploy, ruse, sleight, stratagem, trick, wile). (various references)

Bulgarian 

увъртане (quirk), претекст (alibi, color, colour, come off, excuse, peg, plea, pretence, pretense, pretext, put off, salvo, stalking horse). (various references)

Czech

vytáèka, trik (dodge, dor, foist, gag, gimmick, hocus pocus, racket, trick, wangle), lest (artifice, ruse, stratagem, trick, wile), úskok (dodge, game, jink, ruse, shift, stratagem, trick, trickery, wile). (various references)

Danish

kneb (trick, trickery). (various references)

Dutch

streek (region, streak, stroke, trick, trickery), kunstgreep (trick, trickery), kneep (ruse, stratagem, trick, trickery), foefje (trick, trickery). (various references)

Esperanto

artifiko (trick, trickery). (various references)

Faeroese

svikaráð (assault, trick, trickery), snild (trick, trickery), lokabrøgd (trick, trickery). (various references)

Farsi 

گریز (Allusion, Desertion, Digression, Escape, Evasion, Flight, Guy, Jink, Scamper, Scuttle, Truancy), عذر (Alibi, Excuse, Peg, Plea, Pretext, Purporst), طفره زنی (Truancy), طفره (Evasion, Fetch, Jink, Procrastination, Stall), اختفاء (Privacy), بهانه (Alibi, Evasion, Excuse, Fetch, Fiction, Mask, Peg, Plea, Pretense, Pretext, Purporst). (various references)

Finnish

veruke (evasion, excuse, pretext), tekosyy (pretext). (various references)

French

subterfuge, artifice. (various references)

German

Ausflucht (elusion, escape, excuse, pretext, prevarication, tergiversation, trick, trickery). (various references)

Greek 

υπεκφυγή (elusion, evasion, loophole, prevarication, quibble, quirk, shift, stall, tergiversation). (various references)

Hebrew 

תוא� �" (excuse, occasion, opportunity, pretext), תחבול�" (artifice, expedient, fetch, finesse, hatch, machination, mean, ruse, scheme, shift, stratagem, thingumajig thingumabob, trick, wile). (various references)

Hungarian

kifogás (alibi, caveat, censure, evasion, exception, excuse, kick, mask, objection, plea, pretension, pretext, remonstrance, shabby excuse, stalking horse, stricture), ravasz kibúvó, mentség (excuse, justification), menedékhely (asylum, franchise, haven, refuge area, resort, retreat, sanctuary), ürügy (evasion, excuse, false allegation, handle, pretence, pretense, pretension, shift, shuffle, stalking horse). (various references)

Italian

sotterfugio (elusion, evasion, expedient, tergiversation). (various references)

Manx

cluic (hoax, prank, ruse, stunt, trick). (various references)

Papiamen

triki (trick, trickery). (various references)

Pig Latin

ubterfugesay

Portuguese

subterfúgio (dodgery, evasion, feint, mask, quibble, refuge, salvo, shuffle, trick, trickery). (various references)

Romanian

subterfugiu (evasion, quibble, quip, shift), chichiţã (evasion, shift, stratagem). (various references)

Russian 

увертка (dodge, dodgery, elusion, evasion, quip, stall, tergiversation). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

vrdanje (dodgery, double dealing, equivocation, jink, tergiversation, wriggle), izvrdavanje (parry). (various references)

Spanish

subterfugio (alibi, excuse, quibble). (various references)

Swedish

undanflykt (dodgery, evasion, excuse, pretext, prevarication, tergiversation), svepskäl (blind, evasion). (various references)

Turkish

kaçamak (casual, casually, escapade, evasion, evasive, furtive, hanky panky, loophole, run, running, salvo, shift, stealthy, surreptitious), hile (adulteration, artifice, arts, canard, catch, cheat, cheating, chicane, cobweb, collusion, craft, cross, deceit, deception, decoy, device, do, dodge, doubling, dupery, duplicity, fake, false pretences, false pretenses, finesse, flam, flimflam, fraud, gadget, gaff, gambit, gammon, gimmick, gouge, hanky panky, have, have on, hocus pocus, hokey-pokey, hoky-poky, humbug, imposture, jiggery pokery, maneuver, manipulation, manoeuvre, plant, ploy, practice, pretense, rig, rigging, rip off, ruse, sell, sham, sleight of hand, slyness, tortuosity, trick, trickery, wheeling and dealing, wile), bahane (allegation, blind, cavil, cloak, cop out, cover, evasion, excuse, guise, peg, plea, pretence, pretext, putoff, rise, salvo, shift, stalking horse, veil). (various references)

Ukrainian

викрут (deceit, ruse), притулок (accommodation, asylum, bield, chimney, cover, harbour, niche, nook, port, purlieu, refuge, sanctuary, shelter, succor, succour), покров (cloak, cloud, cope). (various references)

subterfugere. (various references)

subterfugium. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "subterfuge": subterfuges. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Subterfuge" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: subtefruge, subtefuge, subterfudge, subtertuge, subterufge, subtrefuge, subturfuge, subyerfuge, sunterfuge. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-3 letters: befrets, burgees, futures, gesture, refuges, refutes.

-4 letters: befret, begets, bereft, berets, brutes, burets, burgee, buster, egrets, fester, freest, fugues, future, grebes, greets, rebuts, refuge, refuse, refute, retuse, suture, tubers, uterus.

-5 letters: beefs, beers, beets, beget, beret, bergs, beset, brees, brute, buret, burgs, burse, burst, butes, egers, egest, egret, ester, feres, fetes, fetus, frees.

+1 letter: subterfuges.