'Subterfuge' definitions:
Definition of 'subterfuge'
(from WordNet)
noun
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" [syn: subterfuge, blind]
Definition of 'Subterfuge'
From: GCIDE
- Subterfuge \Sub"ter*fuge\, n. [F., from LL. subterfugium, fr. L. subterfugere to flee secretly, to escape; subter under + fugere to flee. See Fugitive.] That to which one resorts for escape or concealment; an artifice employed to escape censure or the force of an argument, or to justify opinions or conduct; a shift; an evasion. [1913 Webster]
- Affect not little shifts and subterfuges, to avoid the force of an argument. --I. Watts. [1913 Webster]
- By a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render this position safe by rendering it nugatory. --Burke. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'subterfuge'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- airtight secrecy,
- alibi,
- apology,
- art,
- artful dodge,
- artifice,
- bag of tricks,
- bamboozlement,
- befooling,
- bickering,
- blind,
- bluff,
- bluffing,
- boggling,
- bosey,
- burial,
- burying,
- calculated deception,
- captiousness,
- catch,
- caviling,
- cheat,
- chicane,
- chicanery,
- chouse,
- circumvention,
- cloak,
- close secrecy,
- closeness,
- clouding,
- color,
- concealedness,
- concealment,
- conning,
- conspiracy,
- contrivance,
- coup,
- cover,
- cover story,
- cover-up,
- covering,
- covering up,
- covertness,
- craft,
- crypticness,
- curve,
- curve-ball,
- cute trick,
- darkening,
- deceit,
- deceiving,
- deception,
- deceptiveness,
- defrauding,
- delusion,
- delusiveness,
- design,
- device,
- dirty deal,
- dirty trick,
- discreetness,
- discretion,
- dishonesty,
- dodge,
- dodging,
- double-dealing,
- dupery,
- enmeshment,
- ensnarement,
- entanglement,
- entrapment,
- equivocation,
- evasion,
- evasiveness,
- excuse,
- expedient,
- facade,
- fakement,
- fallaciousness,
- fallacy,
- falseness,
- fast deal,
- feint,
- fencing,
- fetch,
- ficelle,
- flimflam,
- flimflammery,
- fond illusion,
- fooling,
- fraud,
- front,
- gambit,
- game,
- gimmick,
- gloss,
- googly,
- grift,
- guise,
- hairsplitting,
- hallucination,
- handle,
- hedging,
- hiddenness,
- hiding,
- hocus-pocus,
- hoodwinking,
- hugger-mugger,
- hugger-muggery,
- illusion,
- interment,
- intrigue,
- invisibility,
- joker,
- juggle,
- jugglery,
- kidding,
- knavery,
- lame excuse,
- little game,
- locus standi,
- logic-chopping,
- maneuver,
- mask,
- masking,
- mirage,
- move,
- mystification,
- nit-picking,
- obscuration,
- obscurement,
- occultation,
- ostensible motive,
- outwitting,
- overreaching,
- paltering,
- parrying,
- pass,
- pettifoggery,
- phantasm,
- plot,
- ploy,
- poor excuse,
- pretense,
- pretension,
- pretext,
- prevarication,
- protestation,
- public motive,
- pussyfooting,
- put-off,
- putting away,
- putting on,
- quibbling,
- racket,
- red herring,
- refuge,
- ruse,
- scheme,
- screen,
- screening,
- scurvy trick,
- secrecy,
- secretion,
- secretiveness,
- secretness,
- self-deception,
- semblance,
- sham,
- shift,
- shifting,
- show,
- shuffling,
- sidestepping,
- sleight,
- sleight of hand,
- sleight-of-hand trick,
- smoke screen,
- snow job,
- song and dance,
- spoofery,
- spoofing,
- stalking-horse,
- stratagem,
- strategy,
- swindling,
- tactic,
- tergiversation,
- the dark,
- trichoschistism,
- trick,
- trickery,
- trickiness,
- tricking,
- uncommunicativeness,
- varnish,
- veil,
- victimization,
- vision,
- wile,
- willful misconception,
- wily device,
- wishful thinking