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Deceive   /dɪsˈiv/   Listen
verb
Deceive  v. t.  (past & past part. deceived; pres. part. deceiving)  
1.
To lead into error; to cause to believe what is false, or disbelieve what is true; to impose upon; to mislead; to cheat; to disappoint; to delude; to insnare. "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." "Nimble jugglers that deceive the eye." "What can 'scape the eye Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart?"
2.
To beguile; to amuse, so as to divert the attention; to while away; to take away as if by deception. "These occupations oftentimes deceived The listless hour."
3.
To deprive by fraud or stealth; to defraud. (Obs.) "Plant fruit trees in large borders, and set therein fine flowers, but thin and sparingly, lest they deceive the trees."
Synonyms: Deceive, Delude, Mislead. Deceive is a general word applicable to any kind of misrepresentation affecting faith or life. To delude, primarily, is to make sport of, by deceiving, and is accomplished by playing upon one's imagination or credulity, as by exciting false hopes, causing him to undertake or expect what is impracticable, and making his failure ridiculous. It implies some infirmity of judgment in the victim, and intention to deceive in the deluder. But it is often used reflexively, indicating that a person's own weakness has made him the sport of others or of fortune; as, he deluded himself with a belief that luck would always favor him. To mislead is to lead, guide, or direct in a wrong way, either willfully or ignorantly.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Deceive" Quotes from Famous Books



... deceive themselves strangely. They fancy that they will be treated with consideration, that they will even be protected, because they maintain the principle of free trade, and because they hold the great cotton market. Free trade, cotton, these are ...
— The Uprising of a Great People • Count Agenor de Gasparin

... think this ill-judged, very ill-judged. It will lead to misapprehension. It will deceive people into the belief that you are ...
— Hector's Inheritance - or The Boys of Smith Institute • Horatio Alger

... in Troy. It extended into the night. While this went on Sinon, a seeming renegade who had been left behind by the Greeks, and who had helped to deceive the Trojans by lying tales, lighted a fire-signal for the fleet, and loosened the bolts of the wooden horse, from whose hollow depths the hundred weary warriors hastened ...
— Historic Tales, vol 10 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... virtue. The latter sets out, like the Pharisee, with, God, I thank thee; it is a piece of religious pageantry, the hypocrite's hope: and, in a word, it is positive vice: for it is either a mask to deceive others, or a mist to deceive ourselves. A man that is clothed with negatives, thus argues: I am not such a drunkard as my landlord, such a thief as my tenant, such a rakish fellow, or a highwayman; No! I live a sober, regular, retired life: I am a good man, I go ...
— The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of - York, Mariner (1801) • Daniel Defoe

... fallacious, is that the word means this by inference or consequence, rather than primarily. Because one who is eager to controvert, i.e. who is captious, generally, but not always, acts for a sophistical purpose and means to deceive. Cicero, I believe, uses fallax and captiosus as distinct, not ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 69, February 22, 1851 • Various


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