Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of dissimulating; concealment of reality under a diverse or contrary appearance; feigning; hypocrisy; deceit.
- noun Synonyms Simulation (see
dissemble and dissembler), duplicity, deceit.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act of dissembling; a hiding under a false appearance; concealment by feigning; false pretension; hypocrisy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The act of
concealing thetruth ;hypocrisy ordeception . - noun Hiding one's
feelings or purposes.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the act of deceiving
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Still we have our limits beyond which we call dissimulation treachery.
Romola George Eliot 1849
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So far am I from forbidding these officially to check the undue license of kings, that if they connive at kings when they tyrannise and insult over the humbler of the people, I affirm that their dissimulation is not free from nefarious perfidy, because they fraudulently betray the liberty of the people, while knowing that, by the ordinance of God, they are its appointed guardians.
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A course of lying, of deceit and dissimulation, is that which every good man dreads and which we are all concerned to beg of
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721
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My immediate reaction is that his article feels kind of like an ambush, can it be called dissimulation or subterfuge?
The Spirit - news with a Catholic Heart... Terry Nelson 2006
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My immediate reaction is that his article feels kind of like an ambush, can it be called dissimulation or subterfuge?
Archive 2006-12-10 Terry Nelson 2006
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Wherefore, although he did not lie in words, yet with respect to the matter of fact, his dissimulation was a lie, by implication.
Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1 1509-1564 1996
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Being a woman she understood perfectly the art of dissimulation, which is a necessary accomplishment, a thousand circumstances requiring its exercise for the sake of her security, peace, and comfort.
Ninon de L'Enclos the Celebrated Beauty of the 17th Century Robinson, Charles Henry 1903
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[387] His dissimulation was his disregard of the divine call in the vision described in § 21.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh of Clairvaux Bernard 1899
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His reserve might by the ill-natured have been termed dissimulation, inasmuch as when asked by the ladies of the embassy what had become of the young person who had amused them that day so cleverly he gave it out that her whereabouts was uncertain and her destiny probably obscure; he let it be supposed in a word that his benevolence had scarcely survived an accidental, a charitable occasion.
The Tragic Muse Henry James 1879
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They know the difference between darkness and light; and know that genuine love consists in manifesting chastity of heart, which lives upon love alone, and does not pride itself on dissimulation, which is a vice.
skipvia commented on the word dissimulation
A flock of birds
November 16, 2007
bilby commented on the word dissimulation
"All these amiable and inexorable persons were resolutely engaged in pretending to each other that they had never heard of, suspected, or even conceived possible, the least hint to the contrary; and from this tissue of elaborate mutual dissimulation Archer once more disengaged the fact that New York believed him to be Madame Olenska’s lover."
- Edith Wharton, 'The Age of Innocence'.
September 20, 2009