Forgery

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈfɔː.dÊ’É™r.ɪ/
• US IPA: /ˈfɔːr.dÊ’É™r.ɪ/

Origin

Recorded since recorded 1574; from the verb to forge, from Middle English, via Anglo-Norman forger from Old French forgier, from Latin fabricari "to frame, construct, fabricate", itself from fabrica 'workshop; construction', from faber 'workman, smith'

Full definition of forgery

Noun

1. The act of forging metal into shape.
   the forgery of horseshoes
2. The act of forging, fabricating, or producing falsely; especially the crime of fraudulently making or altering a writing or signature purporting to be made by another, the false making or material alteration of or addition to a written instrument for the purpose of deceit and fraud.
   the forgery of a bond
• 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate Chapter Prologue, Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability:...it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
3. That which is forged, fabricated, falsely devised or counterfeited.
4. (archaic) An invention, creation.

Synonyms

• counterfeit
• fake

Derived terms

• forger