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subterfuge |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: 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. Affect not little shifts and subterfuges, to avoid the force of an argument. --I. Watts. By a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render this position safe by rendering it nugatory. --Burke. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: subterfuge n : 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: {blind}]
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