chicanery
/ʃɪˈkeɪn(ə)ɹi/ noun
Forms chicaneries
- noun (uncountable) Deception by the use of trickery, quibbling, or subterfuge.
- noun (countable) An individual act of trickery or deception.
- noun (uncountable, archaic) The quality of being inclined to trickery or deceitfulness.
Synonyms
dishonesty fakery fraud trickery subterfuge chicane guile wile shenanigan
Etymology
From French chicanerie (“trickery”), from chicaner, from Middle French chicaner, borrowed from Middle Low German schicken, from Old Saxon *skikkian, from Proto-West Germanic *skikkijan (“to order, arrange”).
Related to German schicken (“to send, ship”), Middle English skekken (“to send forth, issue”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Mean or unfair artifice to perplex a cause and obscure the truth; stratagem; sharp practice; sophistry.
Etymology [F. chicanerie.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chicanery”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details