1. false(a = adj.all) - not in accordance with the fact or reality or actuality; "gave false testimony under oath"; "false tales of bravery"
Antonym: true
Derived forms noun falseness1, noun falsity2
2. false(s = adj.all) mistaken - arising from error; "a false assumption"; "a mistaken view of the situation"
Derived forms noun falseness1, noun falsity1
3. false(s = adj.all) - erroneous and usually accidental; "a false start"; "a false alarm"
4. false(s = adj.all) - deliberately deceptive; "false pretenses"
Derived forms noun falseness2, noun falsity2
5. false(s = adj.all) delusive - inappropriate to reality or facts; "delusive faith in a wonder drug"; "delusive expectations"; "false hopes"
Derived forms noun falseness1, noun falsity1
6. false(s = adj.all) fake, faux, imitation, simulated - not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article; "it isn't fake anything; it's real synthetic fur"; "faux pearls"; "false teeth"; "decorated with imitation palm leaves"; "a purse of simulated alligator hide"
7. false(s = adj.all) - designed to deceive; "a suitcase with a false bottom"
8. false(s = adj.all) off-key, sour - inaccurate in pitch; "a false (or sour) note"; "her singing was off key"
9. false(s = adj.all) assumed, fictitious, fictive, pretended, put on, sham - adopted in order to deceive; "an assumed name"; "an assumed cheerfulness"; "a fictitious address"; "fictive sympathy"; "a pretended interest"; "a put-on childish voice"; "sham modesty"
Derived form noun falseness3
10. false(s = adj.all) untrue - (used especially of persons) not dependable in devotion or affection; unfaithful; "a false friend"; "when lovers prove untrue"
Derived forms noun falseness3, noun falsity1
false(r = adv.all) faithlessly, traitorously, treacherously, treasonably - in a disloyal and faithless manner; "he behaved treacherously"; "his wife played him false"
1. Uttering falsehood; unveracious; given to deceit; dishnest; as, a false witness. [1913 Webster]
2. 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]
3. Not according with truth or reality; not true; fitted or likely to deceive or disappoint; as, a false statement. [1913 Webster]
4. 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]
5. 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]
6. Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are temporary or supplemental. [1913 Webster]
7. Not in tune. [1913 Webster]
Not truly; not honestly; falsely. Shak. [1913 Webster]
1. To report falsely; to falsify. Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
2. To betray; to falsify. [1913 Webster]
"[He] hath his truthe falsed in this wise." [1913 Webster]
3. To mislead by want of truth; to deceive. [1913 Webster]
"In his falsed fancy." [1913 Webster]
4. To feign; to pretend to make. Spenser. [1913 Webster]
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
bearing false witness, blue false indigo, california false morel, false alarm, false alumroot, false asphodel, false azalea, false baby's breath, false beachdrops, false belief, false bittersweet, false bracken, false buckthorn, false bugbane, false calyx, false chamomile, false deathcap, false dogwood, false dragon head, false dragonhead, false face, false foxglove, false front, false fruit, false garlic, false gavial, false glottis, false goatsbeard, false gromwell, false hair, false heather, false hellebore, false imprisonment, false indigo, false labor, false lily of the valley, false lupine, false mallow, false mildew, false mistletoe, false miterwort, false mitrewort, false modesty, false morel, false move, false name, false nettle, false oat, false pimpernel, false pregnancy, false pretence, false pretense, false ragweed, false return, false rue, false rue anemone, false saber-toothed tiger, false saffron, false sago, false sarsaparilla, false scorpion, false show, false smut, false step, false tamarisk, false teeth, false topaz, false truffle, false vampire, false vampire bat, false verdict, false vocal cord, false vocal fold, false wintergreen, false witness, play false, red false mallow, saddled-shaped false morel, scentless false camomile, sweet false chamomile, white false indigo