Word Study
phoney
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun phoney has 1 sense
- phoney(n = noun.person) dissembler, dissimulator, hypocrite, phony, pretender - a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives; Array is a kind of beguiler, cheat, cheater, deceiver, slicker, trickster
has particulars: charmer, smoothie, smoothy, sweet talker, tartufe, tartuffe, whited sepulcher, whited sepulchre
Derived form adjective phoney1
Adjective phoney has 1 sense
CIDE DICTIONARY
phoney, a.
- imitating something superior; intended to deceive; fraudulent; having a misleading appearance; not genuine; counterfeit; fake; as, a phoney diamond; a phoney hundred-dollar bill. [PJC]
- pretending to be other than one is; putting on false appearances; insincere; hypocritical; -- of people. [PJC]
phoney, n.
something or someone that is phony. [PJC]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
phoney, adj. & n. (also phony) colloq.
--adj. (phonier, phoniest)
1 sham; counterfeit.
2 fictitious; fraudulent.
--n. (pl. -eys or -ies) a phoney person or thing.
--adj. (phonier, phoniest)
1 sham; counterfeit.
2 fictitious; fraudulent.
--n. (pl. -eys or -ies) a phoney person or thing.
Derivative
phonily adv. phoniness n.
Etymology
20th c.: orig. unkn.
THESAURUS
phoney
artificial, bogus, charlatan, counterfeit, counterfeiter, deceitful, deceiver, dishonest, double-dealer, ersatz, factitious, fake, faker, false, forgery, fraud, fraudulent, hoax, humbug, hypocritical, imitation, impostor, insincere, mock, mountebank, paste, phony, pretended, pretender, quack, sham, spurious, synthetic, trickster, unreal
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