DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Sham, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shammed p. pr. & vb. n. Shamming.]
1. To trick; to cheat; to deceive or delude with false pretenses.
Fooled and shammed into a conviction. --L'Estrange.
2. To obtrude by fraud or imposition. [R.]
We must have a care that we do not . . . sham fallacies upon the world for current reason. --L'Estrange.
3. To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign.
To sham Abram or To sham Abraham, to feign sickness; to malinger. Hence a malingerer is called, in sailors' cant, Sham Abram, or Sham Abraham.
sham
adj : adopted in order to deceive; "an assumed name"; "an assumed
cheerfulness"; "a fictitious address"; "fictive
sympathy"; "a pretended interest"; "a put-on childish
voice"; "sham modesty" [syn: assumed, false, fictitious,
fictive, pretended, put on]
n 1: something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be
[syn: fake, postiche]
2: a person who makes deceitful pretenses [syn: imposter, impostor,
pretender, fake, faker, fraud, shammer, pseudo,
pseud, role player]
v 1: make a pretence of; "She assumed indifference, even though
she was seething with anger"; "he feigned sleep" [syn: simulate,
assume, feign]
2: make believe with the intent to deceive; "He feigned that he
was ill"; "He shammed a headache" [syn: feign, pretend,
affect, dissemble]
[also: shamming, shammed]