Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not genuine or real; sham or counterfeit.
- adjective Spurious, deceptive, or false.
- adjective Fraudulent, deceitful, or dishonest.
- noun A fraudulent or dishonest person.
- noun Something that is not genuine; a fake.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of the character of a ‘phone’ or of the talk heard over a ‘phone’; unsubstantial; imitational; spurious.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun something or someone that is phony.
- adjective imitating something superior; intended to deceive; fraudulent; having a misleading appearance; not genuine; counterfeit; fake.
- adjective pretending to be other than one is; putting on false appearances; insincere; hypocritical; -- of people.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Fraudulent ;fake ; having a misleading appearance. - noun A
faker , a person who professes beliefs or opinions that they do not hold or assumes an identity other than their own.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives
- adjective fraudulent; having a misleading appearance
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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One thing is certain; this country has endured many periods of debt and the term phony crisis is warranted.
Pat LaMarche: The Stock Market Reacts Negatively to Bad Economic Compromises That Threaten Consumer Spending Pat LaMarche 2011
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One thing is certain; this country has endured many periods of debt and the term phony crisis is warranted.
Pat LaMarche: The Stock Market Reacts Negatively to Bad Economic Compromises That Threaten Consumer Spending Pat LaMarche 2011
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This phony is an embarrassment to all who have honorably served our country.
Heroes or Villains? 2010
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Silberman said that unlike the criticism of Scalia and Thomas, which he termed phony issues, O'Connor's advocacy "is a real ethical issue."
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While juggling roles as mother/musician has its inherent obstacles "I'm committed to both," she says, Brown's major hang-up in the age of instant access and immediate feedback might involve self-promotion and what she calls the "phony" aspects of social media.
Michael Bialas: Why Pieta Brown Digs the Music of Dylan, Dire Straits and her Dad Michael Bialas 2011
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Mr. Picard is seeking to recover what he calls phony investment profits withdrawn from the firm by Mr. Madoff's relatives, money they earned while working there, and funds they spent on credit cards and other purchases.
Judge Dismisses Some Madoff Claims Michael Rothfeld 2011
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McCain forces said that -- excuse me Senator Obama fired back, basically, at the McCain campaign today sharply what he called phony outrage.
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Mr. Cox's criticisms of the agency came as investigators searching the offices of Mr. Madoff's firm in New York City discovered what they described as phony sets of records used to cover up its alleged $50 billion fraud, even as it became clear that Mr. Madoff was trying to attract new investors as recently as early December.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, Barack Obama says enough of what he calls phony outrage about lipstick and pigs and too little real outrage about the economy, even as the McCain forces take new umbrage alleging another smear attempt against Sarah Palin.
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Coming up, did Rush Limbaugh really insult what he called phony soldiers, or is this a fake controversy whipped up by his critics?
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