phony as a three-dollar bill

English

Alternative forms

• queer as a three-dollar bill
• as fake as a two-dollar bill

Etymology

As three-dollar-bills do not exist.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

phony as a three-dollar bill (not comparable)

1. (simile, set phrase) Extremely phony; fake; dishonest; completely bogus.
   • 1978 July 2, Vincent Canby, “Film View”, in New York Times, retrieved 23 January 2018:

     Though the film has some handsome, carefully staged action sequences, its machismo seems as phony as a three‐dollar bill.

   • 2011 September 29, Glenn Kessler, “The Fact Checker: A bogus chart on Obama and the debt gets a new lease on life”, in Washington Post, retrieved 23 January 2018:

     But this chart, originally created by the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, is as phony as a three-dollar bill. Our friends at PolitiFact did a pretty thorough takedown of it in May, giving it their worst rating: “pants on fire.”

   • 2012, Joan Elliott Pickart, The Marrying MacAllister‎^[1], →ISBN:

     "You know, Mr. Sunshine, your laid-back, look-at-the-bright-side, the-glass-is-half-full malarkey is starting to come across as very condescending, especially since I know that your life-is-just-a-bowl-of-cherries spiel is as phony as a three-dollar bill."

Synonyms

• bent as a nine-bob note

Translations

Translations

• Finnish: kiero kuin korkkiruuvi
• French: être faux comme un jeton (fr)
• German: so falsch wie ein falscher Fünfziger, so falsch wie ein falscher Fuffziger
• Spanish: más falso que un duro sevillano (Spain, old-fashioned), más falso que un duro de madera (Spain, old-fashioned), más falso que Judas

References

• Dictionary.com
• The Free Dictionary