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false
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
false
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a false confession (=one that is not true)
▪ The officers were accused of extracting false confessions from some of the prisoners.
a false identity (=when someone pretends to be another person)
▪ He used a fake passport to assume a false identity.
a false sense of security (=a feeling that you are safe, which is not actually true)
▪ They were lulled into a false sense of security.
a false/empty/hollow promise (=one that will not be kept)
▪ I didn’t make any false promises.
a false/fake address
▪ He gave the police a false address.
a false/forged passport (also a fake passportinformal)
▪ He used a false passport to enter Kenya.
a false/misleading statement (=one that is not true)
▪ She is accused of making false statements to obtain a passport.
a false/mistaken impression
▪ He had the mistaken impression that Julia was married.
▪ Many people got the false impression she didn’t care.
a false/wrong move (=made by mistake)
▪ One wrong move and the business might never recover.
a false/wrong move (=in the wrong direction)
▪ One false move, and she’d fall over the edge.
a mistaken/false belief
▪ the mistaken belief that cannabis is not an addictive drug
a wrong/false/mistaken assumption
▪ Both theories are based on a single wrong assumption.
false alarm
▪ Fire fighters responded to a false alarm at one of the college dormitories.
false dawn
▪ The ceasefire turned out to be another false dawn.
false friend
false hope
▪ We don't want to give people false hopes.
false optimism (=optimism based on wrong ideas or information)
▪ In his speech he warned against false optimism about the immediate future.
false positive
▪ 50% of the 170 compounds were judged to be carcinogenic, but some of these might be false positives.
false prophet (=someone whose claims about the future are not true)
false start
▪ After several false starts, the concert finally began.
false teeth
false
▪ His claims were later found to be false.
false
▪ There were a lot of false accusations throughout the trial.
false/unfounded
▪ He says that the rumours are completely unfounded.
▪ False rumors began to spread that troops were massing on the border.
lulled...into a false sense of security (=made people think they were safe when they were not)
▪ Earthquakes here are rare and this has lulled people into a false sense of security .
patently false/untrue
▪ To say that the proposal has no disadvantages at all is patently untrue.
wrong/false
▪ He was jailed for providing false information to the police.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪ Museums and galleries as false delay, he wrote.
▪ Our awareness of the euphemism is shown by our tendency to laugh at what we regard as false pretension.
▪ He had attacked Eliot for worshipping culture, which I considered about as false an imputation as could be imagined.
▪ Musicians, actors and celebrities all count as false gods. 13.
▪ Our hearer may even reject them outright as false.
completely
▪ This proved a difficult task as the story was completely false.
▪ These are serious charges that are wholly unfounded and completely false.
▪ Thunderstorms cause completely false indications of bearings, including the overhead.
▪ Most of his assumptions have proven to be completely false.
▪ Some people freeze up and look completely false.
▪ The report clearly shows that Opposition warnings about what would happen after the reforms have proved to be completely false.
patently
▪ Don't try and set up something that is quite patently false.
totally
▪ The impression you gave that I provided your reporter with new information following the meeting is totally false.
▪ A: No, they are totally false.
▪ Yet anyone who wishes to understand the latent determinants of human behaviour would be unwise to reject this excuse as totally false.
▪ But the end result still runs the risk of leaving the viewer with a totally false impression.
▪ The former might result in a totally false comparison with outside sources.
■ NOUN
accounting
▪ All three were charged with conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to commit forgery, and false accounting.
▪ Fone is charged with three offences of theft involving a total of more than £40,000 and two offences of false accounting.
▪ Mr Nadir faced trial in September on charges of theft and false accounting.
▪ Mr Walker and former finance director Wilfred Aquilina were also charged with two counts of false accounting relating to the thefts.
accusation
▪ There were a lot of false accusations throughout the trial....
▪ Witness Goosby had no reason to make false accusations, Avila said.
▪ Prime is connected with the trial before Pilate and false accusation.
▪ Supporters argue that the measure would provide care centers protection from false accusations.
▪ He had hurt her enough with his false accusations.
▪ His enemies had made false accusations against him and wanted to drag him through the mire.
▪ I knew Hertz Lipmann would have willingly made a false accusation against anyone, if the Party required it of him.
alarm
▪ But the patient was okay, it was a false alarm, please thank them and send them on their way.
▪ Several predictions have been issued, but all have been false alarms.
▪ Thankfully this is a false alarm.
▪ Businesses accounted for 469 of those false alarms, residences were blamed for 223 and 11 came from governmental locations.
▪ There have been several false alarms in the tabloids, but at the end of 1986 reporters thought they had a scoop.
▪ The top source of false alarms was Checkers Drive-In.
▪ The number of hits and false alarms for individual films is given in Table 4.4.
▪ The Tavares Fire Department also receives false alarms -- 211 last year.
assumption
▪ In human terms the reasoning which had been presented to him was filled with flaws and false assumptions.
▪ This can be shown to be a false assumption, however.
▪ It is the irreconcilable contradiction inevitable in humanism because of its false assumptions in constructing a world-view.
▪ He should not put words in my mouth, however, or make false assumptions.
▪ Because of these false assumptions, Labour's appeal is restricted.
▪ But the false assumption is that everybody can be reclassified as a wealth creator.
▪ You end up cutting the evidence to fit your theories, and making false assumptions.
▪ They are built on axioms that may or may not be universally true, and can carry false assumptions with them.
belief
▪ He feels much of the opposition is based on the false belief that the incinerator will also handle toxic waste.
▪ A false belief may nevertheless be justified.
▪ We can not argue straightforwardly that a false belief can not be justified.
▪ Here is one of the standard procedures that is used to test whether a child has an adult-like appreciation of false belief.
▪ An alarming picture encapsulated a false belief.
▪ And they have led them under the false belief that a negotiated solution was seriously pursued.
▪ So the merger boom went on for a while, still fuelled by this false belief.
▪ Not all false beliefs are relevant in this sense.
claim
▪ Many asked for more clearly presented and detailed information with less false claims.
▪ This was long before Eastern Airlines fired him for moral turpitude and for making false claims about a medical background.
▪ He had also threatened to make false claims of homosexual advances.
▪ Insurance companies started hiring him to find stolen goods and investigate false claims.
▪ Why does not the Prime Minister address those issues of life and death instead of parading false claims about his Government?
▪ Editors also object to overblown or false claims.
▪ Clients often make false claims of cold-calling; sometimes so they might avoid paying for the shares they bought.
consciousness
▪ And it is unclear how certain individuals, namely Marxists, transcend false consciousness.
▪ For Marx and Engels the working class had nothing to lose but their chains of false consciousness.
▪ In short, their transgression was motivated by false consciousness.
▪ For them, too, it is simply ideology and false consciousness.
▪ In antiracist analyses the irrationality of popular or working-class racism is conceptualized primarily as a form of false consciousness.
▪ Both the bourgeois ideology and the proletarian false consciousness are products of particular social relations present in capitalism.
dawn
▪ The global fund in all probability will prove to be another false dawn for the poor.
▪ Tracers lit up the fog like a false dawn.
▪ It was a false dawn, replaced soon after by a now starless night that was blacker than the previous hours.
▪ The woman is much more emotionally exposed to the disappointments and false dawns.
▪ That proved to be a false dawn, as Moravcik's replacement, McNamara, was the one who scored.
▪ But we must beware of overconfidence - we have had false dawns before!
economy
▪ Using briefing only may be a false economy.
▪ It would be a false economy not to treat divers.
▪ It is false economy not to get the right expert, even though getting the right expert may be more expensive.
▪ From a point of view of commercial work, however, this is bad practice, and false economy.
▪ Buying less than the best is a false economy.
▪ Do not skimp on batteries, it is a false economy.
▪ Diane Chalmers, senior home care manager, says councillors and staff recognised that removing the service would be a false economy.
eyelash
▪ Everybody tried to take something - a scrap of clothing, a lock of hair, a false eyelash, a brooch.
▪ Anti-fog goggles are recommended for embarrassing facial hair or false eyelashes.
▪ The model came in with the cups of tea, still glowering darkly at Paula from beneath her fringe of false eyelashes.
▪ Bleached hair, false eyelashes and fake nails are old-hat, according to the latest health and beauty survey.
▪ Apply false eyelashes and really catch some one's eye!
▪ Her hair, slightly shorter than his, earrings, make-up and false eyelashes are all perfectly in place.
god
▪ Spark has always had the facility to be silkily suave as she goes about examining our predilection for worshipping false gods.
▪ But those of us who understand history must shudder at his adulation of the false gods of isolationism and protectionism.
▪ Musicians, actors and celebrities all count as false gods. 13.
▪ Massachusetts laws forbade people to induce others to follow false gods, and this they accused Quakers of doing.
▪ Once you get too exclusive, too obsessed with a place, you are worshipping false gods.
▪ The Old Testament records them running after false gods, the gods of the nations round about them, whenever opportunity offered.
hope
▪ I hate unidentified corpses - can't help thinking of women and children, living and waiting in false hopes.
▪ When you care about a dear departed show, a highly promoted new episode offers a kind of false hope.
▪ No, that was a false hope.
▪ Ecstasy to despair to false hope, et cetera.
▪ But having given Labour false hopes, will the media now make sure that Labour suffers from false despair?
▪ The family and others also cling to these times of false hope.
▪ Now the couple had expected it was dead and we gave them false hope.
▪ Investors are so willing to believe in recovery around the corner that they will clutch at false hopes almost indefinitely.
identity
▪ Many people have been tricked by villains with false identity cards.
▪ Under a false identity, he's living it up in Florence, dining out with the aristocracy.
impression
▪ The call, the first by any network, created the false impression that Bush had won the general election.
▪ But he knew that people thought otherwise, and that their false impression was his own fault.
▪ Or was that a false impression, created by the odd circumstances of their unexpected arrival here?
▪ It made him uneasy to think that a false impression was the basis for his hiring.
▪ Taken at face value the words found sinister and can convey a false impression like some sort of second-rate horror movie.
▪ Deceptive behaviors are those actions intended to create a false impression of reality.
▪ By the way, I really must correct a false impression that I inadvertently gave just now.
▪ It was one of the false impressions that collected around her.
imprisonment
▪ The rest included allegations of wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and loss of property.
▪ Lombardy was stopped and arrested on suspicion of rape by force; rape with a foreign object and false imprisonment.
▪ Was recently awarded £30,000 damages against Thames Valley Police for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.
▪ If anyone prevents you from doing so, you can sue for false imprisonment.
▪ But she was spared from that ordeal when Anthony Bourgois pleaded guilty to charges of false imprisonment and carrying a knife.
▪ The boy admitted false imprisonment and wounding.
▪ An action of damages may be brought for false imprisonment. 3.
▪ He denies false imprisonment, assault and blackmail.
information
▪ Such automated systems would also be potentially vulnerable to false information from people or agents hoping to capitalize on their correlated behaviour.
▪ The panel also found that Gingrich gave it false information when questioned about the matter.
▪ The charges including disseminating false information and withholding information.
▪ Seven days later, Gingrich admitted violating House rules by, among other things, submitting false information to the ethics committee.
▪ Consumers could be committing fraud if they provide false information on a credit application form.
▪ But this, being a deliberative move to impart false information, would be a reversion to the linguistic.
▪ Then, when the ethics committee investigated those projects, Gingrich gave the panel false information, the speaker acknowledged.
modesty
▪ This was in no way false modesty - he considered engineering one of the highest possible callings.
▪ I say that with no false modesty.
▪ Miranda, while not vain, did not suffer from false modesty.
▪ It would be false modesty to fail to recognize that it is you that is selling...
▪ There is no false modesty here, no subtle, indirect swaggering; the author's honesty rings true.
▪ That was a fact she accepted without false modesty or pride.
move
▪ Any false starts or false moves will result in error and the telltale bugs.
▪ No regrets, no hesitation; there were no false moves left in me.
▪ One false move in the conduct of the attack will spell certain doom for White.
▪ Leicester are the sporting equivalent of those brave landmine engineers who operate in areas where one false move can destroy everything.
▪ From that day there was no appeal from the consequences of even one false move.
▪ A false move and the State would not hesitate to send him to the same grave as his father and grandfather.
▪ Then it happened, that one false move that a batsman never wants to make.
▪ He scarcely made a false move.
name
▪ At first, they may intend this as a joke, sometimes giving a false name.
▪ Letters, travel documents, counterfeit signatures, a history of false names.
▪ If you still have concerns about confidentiality, you can take the test using a false name - this is perfectly legal.
▪ Win had also used a false name through the years, standard practice for officers engaged in covert work.
▪ I gave him a false name.
▪ With these he could begin to construct the illustrated history of his subject, starting with a false name.
▪ She rang up to make an appointment with my receptionist, using a false name.
▪ After the address book came the false names.
passport
▪ He was provided with a false passport in the name of William Goode.
▪ McMullen unlawfully entered the United States in 1978 on a false passport.
▪ He was carrying a false passport when he arrived from London but was recognised during a routine check.
picture
▪ Tears running down her face, she put the eggs back in their nest a false picture of natural felicity.
▪ This is not an entirely false picture, but it is not the complete one.
▪ The term ideology is often used to suggest a distortion, a false picture of reality.
▪ The media are merely the messengers, sometimes further sensationalizing and then passing along the false picture that has been painted.
▪ You could say that a variation in tyre performance will paint a false picture of a car's worth.
▪ But to a large, and increasing, extent that is a false picture.
▪ First-team manager David Hughes believes, however, that this barren 12-month spell creates a false picture.
positive
▪ These subjects had comparatively low positive titres in 1978 and may have been false positives.
▪ Thus for every 80 correctly predicted we will have 20 false negatives and 200 false positives.
▪ By definition they are all high risk and there is thus no significance to the issue of false positives.
▪ But Salsburg wondered how many of these might be false positives.
pretences
▪ This statement represents the old doctrine in regard to obtaining property by false pretences, to which I shall advert presently.
▪ He argued that the old distinction between the offence of false pretences and larceny had been preserved.
▪ I felt as if I was there under false pretences.
▪ Old terminology such as larceny, larceny by a trick, false pretences and embezzlement were replaced by modern terms.
▪ I got into your office under false pretences, but there was no other way.
▪ He was only interested in himself and his business, and had married her under false pretences.
▪ He brought me down here to work for him under false pretences.
promise
▪ No fast talking, no false promises, and if combat ensues there's no quarter asked or given.
▪ Should not the right hon. Gentleman now apologise for the false promises that he made in 1991?
prophet
▪ There were too many false prophets in the world already without relying on gold-fish.
▪ A sign of a false prophet is a drawing away in independence from the main body of the church.
report
▪ Problems might arise when the false report is made via a telephone.
▪ Publication of false reports of Parliamentary proceedings and premature disclosure of committee proceedings have both constituted contempt.
representation
▪ She admitted four charges of making a false representation to obtain benefit and asked for 18 others to be taken into consideration.
▪ Other allegations against the latter suggested a breach of a contractual duty of care, false representations and undue influence.
security
▪ But, encased in the false security of her new-found happiness, she had never guessed.
▪ The false security offered by a gang?
▪ He was not misled or lulled into a sense of false security or anything of that kind.
sense
▪ An attempt to lull him into a false sense of security.
▪ The entire procedure would give a false sense of security.
▪ They preferred their little aerosols of teargas which gave them a false sense of security.
▪ But some people think too much emphasis is being put on duration, lulling investors into a false sense of comfort.
▪ Making a close relationship may lead to a false sense of self-sufficiency.
▪ The identification of apparent patterning amongst types and sub-groups of ornamental metalwork can easily induce a false sense of satisfaction.
▪ If Dunbar could be lulled first into a false sense of security, it might all go more satisfactorily.
▪ The day went so well, in fact, that we were all completely lulled into a false sense of security.
start
▪ Any false starts or false moves will result in error and the telltale bugs.
▪ After numerous false starts, attendance figures hint that long-suffering soccer fans might finally have something to be excited about.
▪ They were spreading rumours that Mac and I knew the starter and that I had got away with a false start.
▪ After numerous false starts, we find our way to the National Forest boundary.
▪ On the first false start, the tape caught round some horses' necks.
▪ Narendra laughed and said that a few false starts were only to be expected.
▪ There were several false starts and fresh choices, but by ni-Frith they had three scrapes of a sort.
▪ So many false starts, blind alleys, postulates which decayed before the end of the argument.
statement
▪ Inside was a spoof tax return with the usual warnings about false statements.
▪ Punitive damages can be awarded when false statements are made maliciously.
▪ Similarly subsequent facts will not make a false statement true.
▪ The grand jury indicted Aronoff, R-Cincinnati, and Riffe, D-Wheelersburg, on two counts of filing a false statement.
▪ This individual is not required to show how he or she was injured by the false statements.
▪ A false statement is viewed as a lie regardless of the intent.
step
▪ And marriage, I should have thought, is a false step you must have been well warned against.
▪ A false step, a forgotten detail.
▪ Risking a false step in the bog, she sped over the path.
▪ In a way each admired the other's skill at living, while enjoying the odd false step.
▪ I knew that if I made the slightest false step he would leap at me.
▪ One false step and we would be down there too.
tooth
▪ And she can't be the only young girl in the school with a full set of false teeth.
▪ Should I have taken the false teeth?
▪ He rummaged the bed - another fright, his life was full of them - for his false teeth.
▪ The officer was city-bred and educated, so that the false teeth appeared to him in a different light.
▪ This is rather a trivial example: if teeth were the only problem, senescence could be cured by false teeth.
▪ His lips were intensely smiling and his false teeth shone.
▪ Talk of false teeth in this setting?
▪ And indeed his mouth was empty; evidently he had removed his false teeth.
trade
▪ Three others alleged false trade descriptions.
▪ Three others accused the firm of false trade descriptions.
▪ In determining whether there is a false trade description the court looks at the situation as an ordinary purchaser would.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a false dawn
▪ It was a false dawn, replaced soon after by a now starless night that was blacker than the previous hours.
▪ That proved to be a false dawn, as Moravcik's replacement, McNamara, was the one who scored.
▪ Tracers lit up the fog like a false dawn.
make false representations
under/on false pretences
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "Merry Christmas,'' she said with false heartiness.
▪ Decide whether these statements are true or false.
▪ He gave false and misleading statements to the court.
▪ He gave a false name and address to the police.
▪ He gave the clerk a false name and address in case the police were looking for him.
▪ Her claims of being able to recall past lives were later proved false.
▪ Her face took on a look of false delight.
▪ Her smile and welcome seemed false.
▪ Her suitcase had a false bottom, containing 2 kilos of heroin.
▪ Many false assumptions were made about the planet Jupiter.
▪ My mother avoided visiting Bali on the quite false assumption that the place is full of tourists.
▪ Nearly a third of adults in the UK have false teeth.
▪ Please decide whether the following statements are true or false.
▪ Rosenberg had supplied a false name and address.
▪ She was heavily made up, with false eyelashes and bright red lipstick.
▪ The article gives a totally false impression of life in Russia today.
▪ The title gives a false impression of what the book is actually about.
▪ We were given false information about his background.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ It did not disconcert Sly that he found himself addressing an audience who were all wearing false dingo ears.
▪ Taken at face value the words found sinister and can convey a false impression like some sort of second-rate horror movie.
▪ The personality itself can he divided into two parts: false personality and personality proper.
▪ These are serious charges that are wholly unfounded and completely false.
▪ With these he could begin to construct the illustrated history of his subject, starting with a false name.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
False

False \False\, a. [Compar. Falser; superl. Falsest.] [L. falsus, p. p. of fallere to deceive; cf. OF. faus, fals, F. faux, and AS. fals fraud. See Fail, Fall.]

  1. Uttering falsehood; unveracious; given to deceit; dishnest; as, a false witness.

  2. Not faithful or loyal, as to obligations, allegiance, vows, etc.; untrue; treacherous; perfidious; as, a false friend, lover, or subject; false to promises.

    I to myself was false, ere thou to me.
    --Milton.

  3. Not according with truth or reality; not true; fitted or likely to deceive or disappoint; as, a false statement.

  4. Not genuine or real; assumed or designed to deceive; counterfeit; hypocritical; as, false tears; false modesty; false colors; false jewelry.

    False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
    --Shak.

  5. Not well founded; not firm or trustworthy; erroneous; as, a false claim; a false conclusion; a false construction in grammar.

    Whose false foundation waves have swept away.
    --Spenser.

  6. Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are temporary or supplemental.

  7. (Mus.) Not in tune.

    False arch (Arch.), a member having the appearance of an arch, though not of arch construction.

    False attic, an architectural erection above the main cornice, concealing a roof, but not having windows or inclosing rooms.

    False bearing, any bearing which is not directly upon a vertical support; thus, the weight carried by a corbel has a false bearing.

    False cadence, an imperfect or interrupted cadence.

    False conception (Med.), an abnormal conception in which a mole, or misshapen fleshy mass, is produced instead of a properly organized fetus.

    False croup (Med.), a spasmodic affection of the larynx attended with the symptoms of membranous croup, but unassociated with the deposit of a fibrinous membrane.

    False door or False window (Arch.), the representation of a door or window, inserted to complete a series of doors or windows or to give symmetry.

    False fire, a combustible carried by vessels of war, chiefly for signaling, but sometimes burned for the purpose of deceiving an enemy; also, a light on shore for decoying a vessel to destruction.

    False galena. See Blende.

    False imprisonment (Law), the arrest and imprisonment of a person without warrant or cause, or contrary to law; or the unlawful detaining of a person in custody.

    False keel (Naut.), the timber below the main keel, used to serve both as a protection and to increase the shio's lateral resistance.

    False key, a picklock.

    False leg. (Zo["o]l.) See Proleg.

    False membrane (Med.), the fibrinous deposit formed in croup and diphtheria, and resembling in appearance an animal membrane.

    False papers (Naut.), documents carried by a ship giving false representations respecting her cargo, destination, etc., for the purpose of deceiving.

    False passage (Surg.), an unnatural passage leading off from a natural canal, such as the urethra, and produced usually by the unskillful introduction of instruments.

    False personation (Law), the intentional false assumption of the name and personality of another.

    False pretenses (Law), false representations concerning past or present facts and events, for the purpose of defrauding another.

    False rail (Naut.), a thin piece of timber placed on top of the head rail to strengthen it.

    False relation (Mus.), a progression in harmony, in which a certain note in a chord appears in the next chord prefixed by a flat or sharp.

    False return (Law), an untrue return made to a process by the officer to whom it was delivered for execution.

    False ribs (Anat.), the asternal rebs, of which there are five pairs in man.

    False roof (Arch.), the space between the upper ceiling and the roof.
    --Oxford Gloss.

    False token, a false mark or other symbol, used for fraudulent purposes.

    False scorpion (Zo["o]l.), any arachnid of the genus Chelifer. See Book scorpion.

    False tack (Naut.), a coming up into the wind and filling away again on the same tack.

    False vampire (Zo["o]l.), the Vampyrus spectrum of South America, formerly erroneously supposed to have blood-sucking habits; -- called also vampire, and ghost vampire. The genuine blood-sucking bats belong to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla. See Vampire.

    False window. (Arch.) See False door, above.

    False wing. (Zo["o]l.) See Alula, and Bastard wing, under Bastard.

    False works (Civil Engin.), construction works to facilitate the erection of the main work, as scaffolding, bridge centering, etc.

False

False \False\, adv. Not truly; not honestly; falsely. ``You play me false.''
--Shak.

False

False \False\, v. t. [L. falsare to falsify, fr. falsus: cf. F. fausser. See False, a.]

  1. To report falsely; to falsify. [Obs.]
    --Chaucer.

  2. To betray; to falsify. [Obs.]

    [He] hath his truthe falsed in this wise.
    --Chaucer.

  3. To mislead by want of truth; to deceive. [Obs.]

    In his falsed fancy.
    --Spenser.

  4. To feign; to pretend to make. [Obs.] ``And falsed oft his blows.''
    --Spenser.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
false

late Old English, "intentionally untrue, lying," of religion, "not of the true faith, not in accord with Christian doctrines," from Old French fals, faus "false, fake; incorrect, mistaken; treacherous, deceitful" (12c., Modern French faux), from Latin falsus "deceptive, feigned, deceitful, pretend," also "deceived, erroneous, mistaken," past participle of fallere "deceive, disappoint," which is of uncertain origin (see fail (v.)).

\nAdopted into other Germanic languages (cognates: German falsch, Dutch valsch, Old Frisian falsk, Danish falsk), though English is the only one in which the active sense of "deceitful" (a secondary sense in Latin) has predominated. From c.1200 as "deceitful, disloyal, treacherous; not genuine;" from early 14c. as "contrary to fact or reason, erroneous, wrong." False alarm recorded from 1570s. False step (1700) translates French faux pas. To bear false witness is attested from mid-13c.

Wiktionary
false

a. untrue, not factual, factually incorrect. adv. Not truly; not honestly; falsely. n. One of two options on a true-or-false test.

WordNet
false
  1. adj. not in accordance with the fact or reality or actuality; "gave false testimony under oath"; "false tales of bravery" [ant: true]

  2. arising from error; "a false assumption"; "a mistaken view of the situation" [syn: mistaken]

  3. erroneous and usually accidental; "a false start"; "a false alarm"

  4. deliberately deceptive; "hollow (or false) promises"; "false pretenses" [syn: hollow]

  5. inappropriate to reality or facts; "delusive faith in a wonder drug"; "delusive expectations"; "false hopes" [syn: delusive]

  6. not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article; "it isn't fake anything; it's real synthetic fur"; "faux pearls"; "false teeth"; "decorated with imitation palm leaves"; "a purse of simulated alligator hide" [syn: fake, faux, imitation, simulated]

  7. designed to deceive; "a suitcase with a false bottom"

  8. inaccurate in pitch; "a false (or sour) note"; "her singing was off key" [syn: off-key, sour]

  9. adopted in order to deceive; "an assumed name"; "an assumed cheerfulness"; "a fictitious address"; "fictive sympathy"; "a pretended interest"; "a put-on childish voice"; "sham modesty" [syn: assumed, fictitious, fictive, pretended, put on, sham]

  10. (used especially of persons) not dependable in devotion or affection; unfaithful; "a false friend"; "when lovers prove untrue" [syn: untrue]

false

adv. in a disloyal and faithless manner; "he behaved treacherously"; "his wife played him false" [syn: faithlessly, traitorously, treacherously, treasonably]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
False (logic)

In logic, false or untrue is a truth value or a nullary logical connective. In a truth-functional system of propositional logic it is one of two postulated truth values, along with its negation, truth. Usual notations of the false are 0 (especially in Boolean logic and computer science), O (in prefix notation, Opq), and the up tack symbol ⊥.

Another approach is used for several formal theories (for example, intuitionistic propositional calculus) where the false is a propositional constant (i.e. a nullary connective) ⊥, the truth value of this constant being always false in the sense above.

False (album)

False is the second studio album by the death metal band Gorefest. It was released in 1992 on Nuclear Blast Records.

False

False or falsehood may refer to:

  • False (logic)
  • Lie or falsehood, a type of deception in the form of an untruthful statement
  • Falsity or falsehood, in law, deceitfulness by one party that results in damage to another
  • Falsies padding for use in a brassiere to create the appearance of larger breasts
  • false (Unix), a Unix command
  • False (album), an album by Gorefest
  • Matthew Dear or False, American DJ and producer
  • Falsehood (film), a 2001 American short film starring Anne Welles, Mark Irvingsen, and Marie-Noelle Marquis

Usage examples of "false".

The Tusk tells us that there is no greater abomination than the False Prophet.

We have received information, from what appears to be a very reliable source, that you have obtained the Aboriginal scholarship under false pretences.

If a man examines only the external he sees only what he has committed to deed, and that he has not murdered or committed adultery or stolen or borne false witness, and so on.

The Word and, in particular, the precepts of the Decalog are the means with those who acknowledge all kinds of murder, adultery, theft and false witness to be sins.

But pray, listen: all human beings who are born, however numerous and of whatever religion, can be saved if only they acknowledge God and live according to the precepts of the Decalog, which forbid committing murder, adultery, theft, and false witness because to do such things is contrary to religion and therefore contrary to God.

Once a religion is established in a nation the Lord leads that nation according to the precepts and tenets of its own religion, and He has provided that there should be precepts in every religion like those in the Decalog, that God should be worshiped, His name not be profaned, a holy day be observed, that parents be honored, murder, adultery and theft not be committed, and false witness not be spoken.

They know and perceive, therefore, that murder, adultery, theft and false witness are sins and accordingly shun them on that account.

Dear as his daughter might become to him, all he dared to ask of Heaven was that she might be restored to that truer self which lay beneath her false and adventitious being.

Who, soothed to false repose by the fanning plumes above And the music-stirring motion of its soft and busy feet, Dream visions of aereal joy, and call the monster, Love, And wake, and find the shadow Pain, as he whom now we greet.

Then the old woman rendring out like sighes, began to speake in this sort : My daughter take a good heart unto you, and bee not afeared at feigned and strange visions and dreams, for as the visions of the day are accounted false and untrue, so the visions of the night doe often change contrary.

Can change with its false times and tides, Like hope and terror,-- Alas for Love!

The absurd, ugly fang disappeared without a trace, and the albugo on his eye proved false.

Gillen had been the main prosecutor in the Weinberger case, but he had to withdraw because years before he had attended one of the meetings at which the defense secretary allegedly made false statements.

There is a secret method, known only to you, that allows you to tell the true Alvarado from the false.

The court looked to call its new knight Ancel, for that he had once served in the kitchens, and no one gave any more thought to his naming than that, for the days of the False Janiffer were long passed.