PHONEY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Phoney

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/fˈoʊni/ Listen

adjective

phoney adj. (compar. phonier; superl. phoniest) (Also spelled phony)

Imitating something superior; intended to deceive; fraudulent; having a misleading appearance; not genuine; false; counterfeit; fake; as, a phoney diamond; a phoney hundred-dollar bill.

Synonyms: bogus, counterfeit, fake, ersatz; fraudulent; false.

Pretending to be other than one is; putting on false appearances; insincere; hypocritical; of people.

phony adj. (compar. phonier; superl. phoniest) (Also spelled phoney)

Imitating something superior; intended to deceive; fraudulent; having a misleading appearance; not genuine; counterfeit; fake; as, a phony diamond; a phony hundred-dollar bill.

Synonyms: phoney, bogus, counterfeit, fake.

Pretending to be other than one is; putting on false appearances; insincere; hypocritical; of people.

noun

phoney n. (Also spelled phony) Something or someone that is phoney.

phony n. (Also spelled phoney) Something or someone that is phony.

See images of 'Phoney'

Etymology of 'Phoney'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Phoney" Quotes from Famous Books

... most as well as a sourdough!" [1] He paused to take a long, slow swoop of coffee and wipe his mouth with his red bandana. "The whale's head that et Jonah ain't so bad—but them giant hand balls o' stone sounds phoney. . . . You know there seems to be somethin' about this durned country that just nache'ly makes white men—not lie exactly—but sort o' put trimmin's on the truth. . . . I recollect a couple o' yars back when I'm hibernatin' one winter up on the Kuskokwim River with ...

— Where the Sun Swings North • Barrett Willoughby

... wasn't really the sun. The sun, the real sun, was a hateful eye-sizzling horror in the dead black pit. It painted everything with pure white pain, and you saw things by the reflected pain-light. The fat red sun was strictly a phoney, and it didn't fool him any. He hated it for what he knew it was behind the gory mask, and for what it had done ...

— The Hoofer • Walter M. Miller

... not only Jacobs but Gresham in those phoney attachments, and I can hand you the Gamble-Collaton books," set forth Collaton. "Gresham got them away from me to take care of and then held them over me as a threat; but I got them back yesterday by offering ...

— Five Thousand an Hour - How Johnny Gamble Won the Heiress • George Randolph Chester

... we made out her periscope. Intense joy thrilled our little crew. She was inshore from us. She was between our circular course and the chain nets—in the trap. The periscope we had seen might be a dummy, for a submarine frequently casts loose a phoney periscope to draw fire, but, at any rate, she must have been between us and the nets if she cut ...

— Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights • Kelly Miller

... do no good," said Nance; "they just let in smells. Wisht I was a man! You bet I would be up at Slap Jack's! I'd set under a 'lectric fan, an' pour cold things down me an' listen at the 'phoney-graf ever' night. ...

— Calvary Alley • Alice Hegan Rice