The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.]
Uttering falsehood; unveracious; given to deceit; dishnest; as, a false witness.
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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. Not according with truth or reality; not true; fitted or likely to deceive or disappoint; as, a false statement.
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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. -
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. Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are temporary or supplemental.
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(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.
Usage examples of "false conception".
Out of all this complexity of emotion Joan divined that what she yearned most for was to spare Cleve the shame consequent upon recognition of her and then the agony he must suffer at a false conception of her presence there.
They caused fellows of your sort to form a false conception of the nature of a secret service fund.
If they reflect a false conception of strategy they may be the principal cause of defeat.
While she had every confidence in the prowess of the godlike creature who thus dared brazenly to face the king of beasts, she had no false conception of what must certainly happen when they met.
They denounce the ambition for world rule which actuated the first slans, explaining that ambition as due to a false conception of superiority, unleavened by the later experience that convinced them that they are not superior but merely different.
We are a people of warriors, and it will be an easy thing for us to conquer the English, debilitated by a false conception of life.
Perhaps it was time to grow up and admit that twenty years of living on Cheiron was a better heritage than the fact of having been born on a world that was nothing like his false conception of it.
Everybody on board, including Perry Rhodan and Khrest, had a false conception regarding the size of Siliko 5.