Adjective: phoney fow-nee
- Fraudulent; having a misleading appearance
"A claim can be considered phoney, or false, when the speaker promises too much";
- bogus, fake, phony [N. Amer], cod [Brit, informal]
- 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
"The politician was labelled a phoney when his actions contradicted his public statements";
- hypocrite, dissembler, dissimulator, phony [N. Amer], pretender
Derived forms: phoneys
See also: counterfeit, imitative
Type of: deceiver, slicker [informal], trickster
Encyclopedia: Phoney