Fake

Pronunciation

• IPA: /feɪk/, enPR: fāk
• Rhymes: -eɪk

The origin is not known with certainty, although first attested in 1775 CE in British criminals' slang http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=fake&searchmode=none. It is probably from feak, feague ("to give a better appearance through artificial means"); akin to Dutch veeg ("a slap"), vegen ("to sweep, wipe"); German fegen ("to sweep, to polish"). Compare Old English fācn, fācen ("deceit, fraud"). Perhaps related to Old Norse fjuka ("fade, vanquish, disappear"), feikn ("strange, scary, unnatural") and Albanian fik ("put out, vanquish, disappear")

Full definition of fake

Adjective

1. Not real; false, fraudulent.Which fur coat looks fake?

Synonyms

Antonyms

• genuine

Noun

1. Something which is not genuine, or is presented fraudulently.
2. A trick; a swindle.
3. (soccer) Move meant to deceive an opposing player, used for gaining advantage when dribbling an opponent.

Synonyms

• (soccer move) feint

Verb

1. To cheat; to swindle; to steal; to rob.
2. To make; to construct; to do.
3. To modify fraudulently, so as to make an object appear better or other than it really is; as, to fake a bulldog, by burning his upper lip and thus artificially shortening it.
4. To make a counterfeit, to counterfeit, to forge, to falsify.
5. To make a false display of, to affect, to feign, to simulate.

Synonyms

• (To modify fraudulently) adulterate
• (To make a false display) pass off, pose

Derived terms

• fake out
• faker

From Middle English faken, to coil a rope.

Noun

1. (nautical) One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies in a coil; a single turn or coil.

Verb

1. (nautical) To coil (a rope, line, or hawser), by winding alternately in opposite directions, in layers usually of zigzag or figure of eight form, to prevent twisting when running out.