DISSEMBLING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does dissembling mean? 

• DISSEMBLING (noun)
  The noun DISSEMBLING has 2 senses:

1. pretending with intention to deceive

2. the act of deceiving

  Familiarity information: DISSEMBLING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISSEMBLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pretending with intention to deceive

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

dissembling; feigning; pretence; pretense

Hypernyms ("dissembling" is a kind of...):

deceit; deception; misrepresentation (a misleading falsehood)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dissembling"):

bluff (pretense that your position is stronger than it really is)

pretext; stalking-horse (something serving to conceal plans; a fictitious reason that is concocted in order to conceal the real reason)

hypocrisy; lip service (an expression of agreement that is not supported by real conviction)

Derivation:

dissemble (make believe with the intent to deceive)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of deceiving

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation

Hypernyms ("dissembling" is a kind of...):

falsification; misrepresentation (a willful perversion of facts)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dissembling"):

fakery (the act of faking (or the product of faking))

indirection (deceitful action that is not straightforward)

chicane; chicanery; guile; shenanigan; trickery; wile (the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them))

double-dealing; duplicity (acting in bad faith; deception by pretending to entertain one set of intentions while acting under the influence of another)

cheat; cheating (a deception for profit to yourself)

delusion; head game; illusion (the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas)

feigning; pretence; pretending; pretense; simulation (the act of giving a false appearance)

impersonation; imposture (pretending to be another person)

obscurantism (a deliberate act intended to make something obscure)

bluff; four flush (the act of bluffing in poker; deception by a false show of confidence in the strength of your cards)

take-in (the act of taking in as by fooling or cheating or swindling someone)

 Context examples 

But in this, our last interview of friendship, I approached her with a sense of guilt that almost took from me the power of dissembling.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)