dissimulation
/dɪˌsɪmjʊˈleɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1Concealment of one’s thoughts, feelings, or character; pretence: an attempt at dissimulation...
- They used every trick in the book to justify the unjustifiable and the people saw through their lies, half truths and dissimulations.
- Indeed, the play of dissimulation and deception reaffirms the truth about what we see.
- They wanted an end to secrecy and the covering up of blunders, there was to be no dissimulation in producing policies, no more pretence that all was well when it clearly was not.
Synonyms
pretence, dissembling, misrepresentation, deceit, dishonesty, duplicity, lying, guile, subterfuge, feigning, falsification, shamming, faking, bluff, bluffing, counterfeiting, posturing, hypocrisy, double-dealing;
concealment, concealing, masking, disguising, hiding, veiling, shrouding
Irish informal codology
informal kidology
2 [count noun] rare A flock of small birds: his audience consisted of a dissimulation of birds...
- Ducks, sparrows, pelicans-sketches and finished piecesmingled in the vast dissimulation of birds.