Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Deception by trickery or sophistry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Chicane; mean or petty artifices; trickery; sophistry.
  • noun Synonyms Quibbling, stratagem, duplicity.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Mean or unfair artifice to perplex a cause and obscure the truth; stratagem; sharp practice; sophistry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Deception by use of trickery, quibbling, or subterfuge.
  • noun countable, law A slick performance by a lawyer.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French chicanerie ("trickery"), from chicaner.

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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… 2009

  • All I notice is that these experts in chicanery are vying for jobs at BP.

    "My sins my own. They belong to me, me." greygirlbeast 2010

  • 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.

    Yvette Kantrow: Making it Yvette Kantrow 2010

  • 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.

    The Fixed-Term Panacea 2007

  • 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.

    Archive 2007-10-07 2007

  • What deals, games and other chicanery is going on in this leak investigation?

    Think Progress » Judith Miller discovered new notes 2005

  • 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”.

    Correcting the facts and missing the truth « BuzzMachine 2005

  • 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,

    Middlemarch 1871

  • 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.

    Middlemarch: a study of provincial life (1900) 1871

  • 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.

    Middlemarch George Eliot 1849

Comments

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  • To vice, innocence must always seem only a superior kind of chicanery.

    (Ouida)

    March 11, 2008

  • 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 26, 2011