Library / English Dictionary

DECEIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause someone to believe an untruth

Example:

The insurance company deceived me when they told me they were covering my house

Synonyms:

betray; deceive; lead astray

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "deceive" is one way to...):

misinform; mislead (give false or misleading information to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "deceive"):

impersonate; personate; pose (pretend to be someone you are not; sometimes with fraudulent intentions)

bamboozle; hoodwink; lead by the nose; play false; pull the wool over someone's eyes; snow (conceal one's true motives from especially by elaborately feigning good intentions so as to gain an end)

befool; cod; dupe; fool; gull; put on; put one across; put one over; slang; take in (fool or hoax)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Antonym:

undeceive (free from deception or illusion)

Derivation:

deceiver (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

deception (the act of deceiving)

deceptive (designed to deceive or mislead either deliberately or inadvertently)

deceptive (causing one to believe what is not true or fail to believe what is true)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be false to; be dishonest with

Synonyms:

cozen; deceive; delude; lead on

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "deceive" is one way to...):

victimise; victimize (make a victim of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "deceive"):

betray; sell (deliver to an enemy by treachery)

cheat; chisel (engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud)

shill (act as a shill)

flim-flam; fob; fox; play a joke on; play a trick on; play tricks; pull a fast one on; trick (deceive somebody)

befool; fool; gull (make a fool or dupe of)

betray; cheat; cheat on; cuckold; wander (be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage)

hoax; play a joke on; pull someone's leg (subject to a playful hoax or joke)

ensnare; entrap; frame; set up (take or catch as if in a snare or trap)

humbug (trick or deceive)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

deception (the act of deceiving)

deception (a misleading falsehood)

deceptive (designed to deceive or mislead either deliberately or inadvertently)

deceptive (causing one to believe what is not true or fail to believe what is true)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Not to deceive myself, I must reply—No: I felt desolate to a degree.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"If John doesn't know anything about this nonsense, don't tell him, and make Jo and Laurie hold their tongues. I won't be deceived and plagued and made a fool of. It's a shame!"

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“I wonder that my very simple stratagem could deceive so old a shikari,” said Holmes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They have both, said she, been deceived, I dare say, in some way or other, of which we can form no idea.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I can easily suppose that his age may appear much greater to you than to my mother; but you can hardly deceive yourself as to his having the use of his limbs!

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

“They are not very hard to deceive,” he remarked.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Ill fares it with the man who would venture to deceive him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But I concealed my feelings by an appearance of hilarity that brought smiles and joy to the countenance of my father, but hardly deceived the ever-watchful and nicer eye of Elizabeth.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Nor was I deceived, for soon I heard the very distant and low tones of a human voice, which, as I continued to give ear, grew steadily louder and nearer.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Have I been twenty years in this man’s house, to be deceived about his voice?

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)