sham

English

Etymology

Probably a dialectal form of shame.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æm

Adjective

sham (comparative more sham, superlative most sham)

1. Intended to deceive; false.

   It was only a sham wedding: they didn't care much for one another but wanted their parents to stop hassling them.

2. counterfeit; unreal
   • Jowett

     They scorned the sham independence proffered to them by the Athenians.

Synonyms

• mock
• See also Wikisaurus:fake

Antonyms

• genuine
• sincere
• real

Translations

intended to deceive

• Italian: fasullo (it)
• Polish: udawany (pl) m

• Romanian: păcăleală (ro) f
• Spanish: falso (es) m; fingido (es) m

Noun

sham (plural shams)

1. A fake; an imitation that purports to be genuine.

   The time-share deal was a sham.

2. Trickery, hoaxing.

   A con-man must be skilled in the arts of sham and deceit.

3. A decorative cover for a pillow.

Derived terms

• shamateur

Translations

fake, imitation

• Dutch: nep, imitatie
• Finnish: jäljennös (fi), väärennös (fi)
• French: faux-semblant (fr) m
• German: Fälschung f, Imitat n

• Italian: falso (it), fasullo (it)
• Japanese: まがいもの (ja) (magaimono), 真似事 (ja) (manegoto)
• Russian: подделка (ru) (poddélka) f 

trickery, hoaxing

• Dutch: bedrog, oplichterij, kwakzalverij
• Finnish: huijaus, petos, huiputus
• French: feinte (fr) f, tromperie (fr) f, ruse (fr) f, astuce (fr) f
• German: Schwindel (de) m, Mogelei (de) f, Betrug (de) m

• Greek: ψευδής m (psevdhís)
• Japanese: ごまかし (ja) (gomakashi)
• Russian: мошенничество (ru) (mošénničestvo) n , жульничество (ru) (žúl'ničestvo) n 

See also

• pillow sham

Verb

sham (third-person singular simple present shams, present participle shamming, simple past and past participle shammed)

1. To deceive, cheat, lie.

   You were shammed by the pool shark.

Translations

to cheat or deceive

• French: tromper (fr), tricher (fr), mentir (fr)
• German: sich verstellen (de)

• Romanian: păcăli (ro)
• Spanish: fingir (es)

External links

• sham in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• sham in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• sham at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• AMHS
• hams
• HMAS
• mash, MASH

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Uzbek

Other scripts
Cyrillic	шам‍
Roman	sham‍
Perso-Arabic	‍‍

Noun

sham (plural shamlar)

1. candle