Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Deception by trickery or sophistry.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Chicane; mean or petty artifices; trickery; sophistry.
- n. Synonyms Quibbling, stratagem, duplicity.
Wiktionary
- n. Deception by use of trickery, quibbling, or subterfuge.
- n. countable, law A slick performance by a lawyer.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Mean or unfair artifice to perplex a cause and obscure the truth; stratagem; sharp practice; sophistry.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them)
Etymologies
- From French chicanerie ("trickery"), from chicaner. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“This kind of chicanery is what gets you thrown in prison if a private business does it.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » This Argument Works for a Libertarian…
“All I notice is that these experts in chicanery are vying for jobs at BP.”
“But the notion that Wall Street somehow has a monopoly on "disastrous chicanery" is laughable, as big corporate scandals from a few years ago -- Tyco, Adelphia, Enron, WorldCom -- make clear.”
“This sort of constitutional chicanery is really not how we ought to conduct our Parliamentary affairs and I am quite sure that we need no lessons in democracy and the parliamentary process from a country like Germany whose democracy is but sixty years old.”
“What deals, games and other chicanery is going on in this leak investigation?”
“As if that chicanery is not horrible enough, now those bringing the truth to the surface, as Carson Fire puts it, are being made to look like “meanies”.”
“After the word chicanery there was a growing noise, half of murmurs and half of hisses, while four persons started up at once -- Mr. Hawley,”
“After the word chicanery there was a growing noise, half of murmurs and half of hisses, while four persons started up at once -- Mr. Hawley, Mr. Toller, Mr. Chichely, and Mr. Hackbutt; but Mr. Hawley's outburst was instantaneous, and left the others behind in silence.”
“This sort of pseudo-religious chicanery is bit’s stock in trade.”
“That added with a few other situations, including what some on my side still call chicanery, ensured the election of George W. Bush.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chicanery’.
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 159 more...
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POL - scandalous (single words only)
cadre, bribery, bashing, backhander, clash, crony, coercion, coterie, chicanery, baksheesh, acolyte, backlash and 256 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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POL - scandalous (words and collocati...
Words and collocations associated with political scandal
blow the whistle, boo, cronyism and rigging, democratic deficit, denigrate, dirty linen, fiasco, finger pointing a..., graft, hidden account, hush money, illicit financing... and 578 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
caballine, cabas, cable, caboched, cabochon, caboose, cabotage, cabré, cabrie, cabriole, cabriolet, cacaesthesia and 1298 more...
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Fubbery and Blaflum
An arcade of artifice and deception.
fubbery, blaflum, Drunken Fist, escamoterie, archdeceiver, legerdemain, prestidigitation, prestidigital, glaik, imposture, fraud, disguise and 78 more...
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Rlist
voracious, indiscriminate, steeped, replete, eminent, prognosticate, abound, automaton, paradoxical, chronoloigical, annal, amateur and 81 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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No, thank you
Words with negative connotations
fetid, furtive, guile, chicanery, prevaricate, prodigal, meretricious, myopic, noisome, nominal, perfidious, perfunctory and 2 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for chicanery.
burtoncrook Dear Friends:
I have just found your delightful site. As a old-school geezer I deliberately discover and use unusual words. You will materially aid in expanding my vocabulary.
May I suggest adding pronunciation guides to the words? I realize that is is the work of but a moment to look on a dictionary site, but an all-in-one stop would be more impressive and harmonious.
Kindest regards,
Burton Crook
friendsoffifi@eoni.com May 25, 2011
Prolagus To vice, innocence must always seem only a superior kind of chicanery.
(Ouida) Mar 11, 2008