SHAM • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Sham

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/ʃæm/ Listen

noun

Sham n.

That which deceives expectation; any trick, fraud, or device that deludes and disappoints; a make-believe; delusion; imposture; humbug. "A mere sham." "Believe who will the solemn sham, not I."

A false front, or removable ornamental covering.

Pillow sham, a covering to be laid on a pillow.

verb

Sham v. t. (past & past part. shammed; pres. part. shamming)

To trick; to cheat; to deceive or delude with false pretenses. "Fooled and shammed into a conviction."

To obtrude by fraud or imposition. (R.) "We must have a care that we do not... sham fallacies upon the world for current reason."

To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign.

To sham Abram or To sham Abraham, to feign sickness; to malinger. Hence a malingerer is called, in sailors' cant, Sham Abram, or Sham Abraham.

Sham v. i. To make false pretenses; to deceive; to feign; to impose. "Wondering... whether those who lectured him were such fools as they professed to be, or were only shamming."

adjective

Sham adj. False; counterfeit; pretended; feigned; unreal; as, a sham fight. "They scorned the sham independence proffered to them by the Athenians."

See images of 'Sham'

Etymology of 'Sham'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sham" Quotes from Famous Books

... not even a worse stumbling-block in aesthetics, delusive and deceptive, casting a veil of borrowed splendour and sham beauty over everything? They sang of "The Knights' Vigil of Light." What knights' vigil? With patents of nobility and students' certificates; false testimonials, as they might have told themselves. Of light? That was to say of the upper classes who had the greatest interest in keeping ...

— Married • August Strindberg

... his labors seemed not worth while. There was a sour taste in his mouth. To do the little thing with a big heart was after all nothing but a sham. His ideals, he thought, had simmered down to petty things. He was spending his time in nosing out small evil-smelling scandals and in running for a mean inferior office. He felt nauseated with himself. Worse, he felt a horrible new doubt ...

— Jewel Weed • Alice Ames Winter

... then t' go home 'n' lie about, tellin' how they fit with it, would 'a suited our sham hunters better 'n' a whole passle o' antlers; so I busted through th' bush fast as I could, fallin' 'n' rippin' my clothes nigh off—only t' find our hounds snappin' 'n' bayin' round a mighty big buck, that ...

— The Red-Blooded Heroes of the Frontier • Edgar Beecher Bronson

... paid about twenty dollars. A Christian or a Jew must never think he will be able to save his money, or, much less, his credit, by apostatising, for these Tuaricks will always swear his conversion is sham, however real it may be. He will always have to pay the same money, whether he keep his religion or sell it for the chance of saving his worthless gold ...

— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2 • James Richardson

... understands. She is an angel, Brandon, an angel from heaven. But," she burst forth, "I am not altogether a sham. I AM the daughter of Colonel Castleton, and I AM the cousin of all the Murgatroyds,—the poor relation. It isn't as if I were the scum of the earth, is it? I AM a Castleton. My father comes of a ...

— The Hollow of Her Hand • George Barr McCutcheon

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