Borrowed fromMiddle Frenchsubterfuge m, fromMedieval Latinsubterfugium n, fromLatinsubterfugiō(“I flee secretly”), fromsubter(“under”) andfugiō(“I flee”).
subterfuge (countable anduncountable,pluralsubterfuges)
- (countable) Anindirect ordeceptivedevice orstratagem; ablind. Refers especially to war and diplomatics.
Overtsubterfuge in a region nearly caused a minor accident.
2012 March, William E. Carter with Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, inAmerican Scientist[1], volume100, number 2,Sigma Xi,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on20 February 2012,page87:But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have beensubterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.
- (uncountable)Deception; misrepresentation of the true nature of an activity.
1672, [Andrew Marvell],The Rehearsal Transpros’d: Or, Animadversions upon a Late Book, Entituled, A Preface, Shewing what Grounds there are of Fears and Jealousies of Popery, London:[s.n.],→OCLC,pages57–58:But in the mean time[…] it looks all ſo likeſubterfuge and inveagling; it is ſo nauſeating and teadious a task, that no man thinks he ovvs the Author ſo much ſervice as to find out the reaſon of his ovvnCategoricalneſs for him.
2023 July 26, Christian Wolmar, “Closing ticket offices to lead to 'catch-22' for passengers”, inRAIL, number988, page42:I have been critical of the RDG in the past for merely being a cypher for government announcements, but the failure of its members to make a stand on this issue and not be complicit in the Government'ssubterfuge is a shocking indictment of their failure to protect the industry.
indirect or deceptive device or stratagem; blind
- Bulgarian:увъртане (bg) n(uvǎrtane),хитруване (bg) n(hitruvane)
- Dutch:truc (nl) m
- Finnish:harhautus (fi),ansa (fi)
- German:Täuschung (de) f,Trick (de) m
- Greek:τέχνασμα (el) n(téchnasma),υπεκφυγή (el) f(ypekfygí)
- Hungarian:fortély (hu),csel (hu),trükk (hu)
- Latin:calumnia f
- Macedonian:мр́дање n(mŕdanje)
- Maori:nuka
- Russian:уло́вка (ru) f(ulóvka),ухищре́ние (ru) n(uxiščrénije)
- Serbo-Croatian:vrdanje (sh) n,izvrdavanje (sh) n,obmana (sh) f
- Spanish:subterfugio (es) m,tapujo (es) m(colloquial),evasiva (es) f,demora (es) f
- Ukrainian:виверт(vyvert),викрут(vykrut)
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Translations to be checked
FromMiddle Frenchsubterfuge m, borrowed fromMedieval Latinsubterfugium n, fromLatinsubterfugiō(“to flee secretly”), fromsubter(“under”) andfugio(“to flee”).
subterfuge m (pluralsubterfuges)
- subterfuge
- Synonym:stratagème
subterfuge
- second-personsingularpresentactiveimperative ofsubterfugiō
