falsify
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfɒlsɪfaɪ/
ipa: /ˈfɔːlsɪfaɪ/
rhymes: -ɒlsɪfaɪ
rhymes: -ɔːlsɪfaɪ
Forms: form: falsifies
form: falsifying
form: falsified
form: falsified
Etymology: From French falsifier, from Late Latin falsificāre (“make false, corrupt, counterfeit, falsify”), from Latin falsificus, from falsus (“false”), corresponding to false + -ify.
Senses: examples: text: to falsify a record or document
text: The Irish bards use to forge and falsify everything as they list, to please or displease any man.
ref: 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:
glosses: To alter so as to make false; especially when done with intent to deceive.
glosses: To misrepresent.
examples: text: to falsify money
glosses: To counterfeit; to forge.
examples: text: By how much better than my word I am, / By so much shall I falsify men's hope.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: Hovv much greater confirmation of his faith vvould he have received, had he ſeen our Saviour's prophecy ſtand good in the deſtruction of the temple, and the diſſolution of the Jevviſh œconomy, vvhen Jevvs and Pagans united all their endeavours under Julian the Apoſtate, to baffle and falſify the prediction?
ref: a. 1720 (date written), Joseph Addison, “Section VIII. Against Atheism and Infidelity.”, in The Evidences of the Christian Religion, […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], published 1730, →OCLC, subsection VI, page 66:
topics: sciences
qualifier: otherwise archaic
glosses: To prove to be false.
examples: text: It will allow the account to stand, with liberty to the plaintiff to surcharge and falsify it
ref: 1833, Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States:
text: The chancery rules governing proceedings to surcharge and falsify accounts are applicable only where an account has been stated between the parties, or where something equivalent thereto has been done.
ref: 1912, Peyton Boyle, The Federal Reporter: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit District Courts of the United States:
topics: accounting
business
finance
glosses: To show (an item of charge inserted in an account) to be wrong.
examples: text: For disputants (as swordsmen use to fence / With blunted foyles) engage with blunted sense; / And as th' are wont to falsify a blow, / Use nothing else to pass upon a foe […]
ref: a. 1680, Samuel Butler, Fragments of an intended second part of the foregoing satire:
glosses: To baffle or escape.
examples: text: to falsify one's faith or word
text: he would not falsify his promise to Philanax
ref: a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:
english: The New Arcadia
translation: The New Arcadia
glosses: To violate; to break by falsehood.
Derived terms: falsifiability
falsifiable
falsification
falsificationism
falsifier
Related terms: false
falsehood
falseness
falsity