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Another word for ruse

a-z
Noun

  1. An indirect, usually cunning means of gaining an end

      1. The act or an instance of swindling or cheating; a deception.
      1. A playful or mischievous act; a prank:
      2. An underhanded act or deceitful remark:
      1. A stratagem or trick intended to deceive or ensnare.
      2. A disarming or seductive manner, device, or procedure:
      3. To influence or lead by means of wiles; entice:
      1. An act or procedure intended to achieve an end by deceptive or fraudulent means.
      2. A mischievous action; a prank:
      3. A stupid, disgraceful, or childish act:
      1. Deception used to achieve an end:
      2. A deceptive stratagem or device:
      1. A scheme or maneuver designed to achieve an objective, as in surprising an enemy or deceiving someone.
      2. The devising or execution of such schemes or maneuvers:
      1. Deftness; dexterity.
      2. A clever or skillful trick or deception; an artifice or stratagem.
      1. An action calculated to frustrate an opponent or gain an advantage indirectly or deviously; a maneuver:
      1. A movement or combination of movements involving skill and dexterity:
      2. A controlled change in movement or direction of a moving vehicle or vessel, as in the flight path of an aircraft.
      3. A strategic or tactical military or naval movement.
      1. Any of various lively dances in triple time.
      2. The music for such a dance.
      3. A joke or trick. Used chiefly in the phrase The jig is up.
      1. The act or instance of engaging in deception under an assumed name or identity.
      1. A device employed to cheat, deceive, or trick, especially a mechanism for the secret and dishonest control of gambling apparatus.
      2. An innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance; a gadget.
      3. An innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project:
      1. A military attack or maneuver that is meant to divert attention away from a planned point of attack.
      2. A body movement that is intended to divert another's attention, often by being deliberately left uncompleted:
      3. A deceptive action calculated to divert attention from one's real purpose.
      1. To avoid (a blow, for example) by moving or shifting quickly aside.
      2. To evade (an obligation, for example) by cunning, trickery, or deceit:
      3. To blunt or reduce the intensity of (a section of a photograph) by shading during the printing process.
      1. A contrivance or invention serving a particular purpose, especially a machine used to perform one or more relatively simple tasks.
      2. A literary contrivance, such as parallelism or personification, used to achieve a particular effect.
      3. A decorative design, figure, or pattern, as one used in embroidery.
      1. The use of deceit.
      2. The fact or state of being deceived.
      3. A ruse; a trick.
      1. Deception or trickery:
      2. Something contrived or made up to achieve an end, especially by deceiving; a stratagem or ruse:
      3. Cleverness or ingenuity in making or doing something; art or skill:
    See also:

    means

    honest

© Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Another word for ruse

Noun
      1. The act or practice of deceiving; deception.
      2. A stratagem; a trick.
      3. The quality of being deceitful; falseness.
      1. An action calculated to frustrate an opponent or gain an advantage indirectly or deviously; a maneuver:
      1. A scheme or maneuver designed to achieve an objective, as in surprising an enemy or deceiving someone.
      2. The devising or execution of such schemes or maneuvers:
      1. Deception or trickery:
      2. Something contrived or made up to achieve an end, especially by deceiving; a stratagem or ruse:
      3. Cleverness or ingenuity in making or doing something; art or skill:
    See also:

    trick

    trick

    device

© WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD® ROGET’S A-Z THESAURUS by Charlton Laird and the editors of Webster’s New World dictionaries. Copyright © 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Sentence Examples

  • It was only a ruse to get her alone.

  • Was he gold digging, or was it simply a ruse to spend the night?

  • Damian gritted his teeth, remembering how tempted he'd been by the same ruse a few nights before.

  • It was simply a ruse to keep her from exploring that path and what lay beyond.

  • Even if the bones were discovered and it was known the drowning was a ruse, no one would have suspected you boys.

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Words that mention ruse in the Dictionary

Words near ruse in the Thesaurus