Hypocrisy HYPOC'RISY, n. [L. hypocrisis; Gr. simulation; to feign; to separate, discern or judge.]
1. Simulation; a feigning to be what one is not; or dissimulation, a concealment of one's real character or motives. More generally, hypocrisy is simulation, or the assuming of a false appearance of virtue or religion; a deceitful show of a good character, in morals or religion; a counterfeiting of religion.
Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Luke 12.
2. Simulation; deceitful appearance; false pretence.
Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy.

hypocrisy n 1: an expression of agreement that is not supported by real conviction [syn: hypocrisy, lip service] 2: insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have

hypocrisy c.1225, from O.Fr. ypocrisie, from L.L. hypocrisis, from Gk. hypokrisis "acting on the stage, pretense," from hypokrinesthai "play a part, pretend," also "answer," from hypo- "under" + middle voice of krinein "to sift, decide." The sense evolution is from "separate gradually" to "answer" to "answer a fellow actor on stage" to "play a part." Thus hypocrite (c.1225) is ult. Gk. hypokrites "actor on the stage, pretender."

hypocrisy noun (plural -sies) Etymology: Middle English ypocrisie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin hypocrisis, from Greek hypokrisis act of playing a part on the stage, hypocrisy, from hypokrinesthai to answer, act on the stage, from hypo- + krinein to decide — more at certain Date: 13th century 1. a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion 2. an act or instance of hypocrisy

hypocrisy
n. (pl. -ies)
1 the assumption or postulation of moral standards to which one's own behaviour does not conform; dissimulation, pretence.
2 an instance of this.
Etymology: ME f. OF ypocrisie f. eccl.L hypocrisis f. Gk hupokrisis acting of a part, pretence (as HYPO-, krino decide, judge)

hypocrisy (hypocrisies) If you accuse someone of hypocrisy, you mean that they pretend to have qualities, beliefs, or feelings that they do not really have. He accused newspapers of hypocrisy in their treatment of the story... ≠ sincerity N-VAR [disapproval]

hypocrisy hɪˈpɔkrəsɪ n. (pl. -ies) 1 the assumption or postulation of moral standards to which one's own behaviour does not conform; dissimulation, pretence. 2 an instance of this. [ME f. OF ypocrisie f. eccl.L hypocrisis f. Gk hupokrisis acting of a part, pretence (as HYPO-, krino decide, judge)]

HYPOCRISY Oh, for a forty-parson power to chant Thy praise, Hypocrisy! Oh, for a hymn Loud as the virtues thou dost loudly vaunt, Not practise! Don Juan, Canto X. LORD BYRON. For neither man nor angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone, By his permissive will, through heaven and earth. Paradise Lost, Bk. III. MILTON. Away, and mock the time with fairest show; False face must hide what the false heart doth know. Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 7. SHAKESPEARE. O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave? Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE. Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant Can tickle where she wounds! Cymbeline, Act i. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE. She that asks Her dear five hundred friends, contemns them all, And hates their coming. The Task, Bk. II. W. COWPER. He seemed For dignity composed and high exploit: But all was false and hollow. Paradise Lost, Bk. II. MILTON. He was a man Who stole the livery of the court of Heaven To serve the Devil in. Course of Time, Bk. VIII R. POLLOK. The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul, producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE. But then I sigh, and with a piece of Scripture Tell them that God bids us do good for evil: And thus I clothe my naked villany With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ, And seem a saint when most I play the devil. King Richard III., Act i. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE. O villain, villain, smiling damnèd villain! My tables,--meet it is I set it down, That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain. Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 5. SHAKESPEARE. That practised falsehood under saintly shew, Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge. Paradise Lost, Bk. IV. MILTON. Built God a church, and laughed his word to scorn. Retirement. W. COWPER. And the devil did grin, for his darling sin Is pride that apes humility. The Devil's Thoughts. S.T. COLERIDGE. O, what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side! Measure for Measure, Act iii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE. 'Tis too much proved--that with devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself. Hamlet, Act iii, Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE. I waive the quantum o' the sin, The hazard of concealing: But, och! it hardens a' within, And petrifies the feeling. Epistle to a Young Friend. R. BURNS. IDLENESS. 'Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain, "You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again." The Sluggard. DR. I. WATTS. Sloth views the towers of fame with envious eyes, Desirous still, still impotent to rise. The Judgment of Hercules. W. SHENSTONE. Their only labor was to kill the time (And labor dire it is, and weary woe); They sit, they loll, turn o'er some idle rhyme; Then, rising sudden, to the glass they go, Or saunter forth, with tottering step and slow: This soon too rude an exercise they find; Straight on the couch their limbs again they throw, Where hours on hours they sighing lie reclined, And court the vapory god, soft breathing in the wind. The Castle of Indolence, Canto I. J. THOMSON. Leisure is pain; take off our chariot wheels, How heavily we drag the load of life! Blest leisure is our curse; like that of Cain, It makes us wander, wander earth around To fly that tyrant, thought. Night Thoughts, Night II. DR. E. YOUNG. To sigh, yet feel no pain, To weep, yet scarce know why; To sport an hour with Beauty's chain, Then throw it idly by. The Blue Stocking. T. MOORE. The keenest pangs the wretched find Are rapture to the dreary void, The leafless desert of the mind, The waste of feelings unemployed. The Giaour. LORD BYRON. A lazy lolling sort, Unseen at church, at senate, or at court, Of ever-listless idlers, that attend No cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend. There too, my Paridell! she marked thee there, Stretched on the rack of a too easy chair, And heard thy everlasting yawn confess The pains and penalties of idleness. The Dunciad, Bk. IV. A. POPE. An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as if it stands. Retirement. W. COWPER. There is no remedy for time misspent; No healing for the waste of idleness, Whose very languor is a punishment Heavier than active souls can feel or guess. Sonnet. SIR A. DE VERE. For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do. Song XX. DR. I. WATTS.

Hypocrisy This outward-sainted deputy,-- Whose settled visage and deliberate word Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth emmew As falcon doth the fowl,--is yet a devil. SHAKESPEARE: M. for M., Act iii., Sc. 1. Neither man nor angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone, By His permissive will, through Heaven and Earth. MILTON: Par. Lost, Bk. iii., Line 682. The hypocrite had left his mask, and stood In naked ugliness. He was a man Who stole the livery of the court of heaven To serve the devil in. POLLOK: Course of Time, Pt. viii., Line 615.

Hypocrisy \Hy*poc"ri*sy\ (h[i^]*p[o^]k"r[i^]*s[y^]), n.; pl. Hypocrisies (-s[i^]z). [OE. hypocrisie, ypocrisie, OF. hypocrisie, ypocrisie, F. hypocrisie, L. hypocrisis, fr. Gr. "ypo`krisis the playing a part on the stage, simulation, outward show, fr. "ypokr`nesqai to answer on the stage, to play a part; "ypo` under + kri`nein to decide; in the middle voice, to dispute, contend. See Hypo-, and Critic.] The act or practice of a hypocrite; a feigning to be what one is not, or to feel what one does not feel; a dissimulation, or a concealment of one's real character, disposition, or motives; especially, the assuming of false appearance of virtue or religion; a simulation of goodness. Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy. --Rambler. Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue. --La Rochefoucauld (Trans. ).

hypocrisy n. 1. Pharisaism, formalism, sanctimoniousness, cant, pietism, assumed piety. 2. Dissimulation, deceit, deception, imposture, pretence, false profession.

hypocrisy hɪˈpɔkrəsɪ n. deceit, deceitfulness, duplicity, double-dealing, deception, chicanery, guile, quackery, charlatanism or charlatanry, falseness, fakery, falseness, lying, mendacity, Pharisaism or Phariseeism, Tartuffery, insincerity, two-facedness, sanctimony, sanctimoniousness, Colloq phoneyness or US also phoniness: I loath hypocrisy and double standards.

90 Moby Thesaurus words for "hypocrisy": Pecksniffery, Pharisaism, Tartuffery, Tartuffism, affectation, affectedness, airs, airs and graces, artfulness, artificiality, cant, casuistry, charlatanism, charlatanry, chicanery, craft, cunning, deceit, deceitfulness, deception, double-dealing, duplicity, empty gesture, facade, fakery, false front, false piety, false show, falseheartedness, falseness, feigned belief, front, furtiveness, glibness, goody-goodiness, guile, humbug, hypocriticalness, image, indirection, insidiousness, insincerity, lip service, lying, mannerism, mealymouthedness, mendacity, mere show, mouthing, mummery, oiliness, ostentatious devotion, pecksniffery, pharisaicalness, pharisaism, pietism, pietisticalness, piety, piousness, pretense, pretension, prunes and prisms, public image, put-on, putting on airs, quackery, religionism, religiosity, sanctimoniousness, sanctimony, self-righteousness, sham, shiftiness, show, sneak attack, sneakiness, snivel, snuffle, snuffling, soft soap, stylishness, surreptitiousness, sweet talk, tokenism, treacherousness, two-facedness, unction, unctuousness, underhandedness, unnaturalness

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