Hypertext Webster Gateway: "subterfuge"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Subterfuge \Sub"ter*fuge\, n. [F., from LL. subterfugium, fr. L.
subterfugere to flee secretly, to escape; subter under +
fugere to flee. See {Fugitive}.]
That to which one resorts for escape or concealment; an
artifice employed to escape censure or the force of an
argument, or to justify opinions or conduct; a shift; an
evasion.
Affect not little shifts and subterfuges, to avoid the
force of an argument. --I. Watts.
By a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render this
position safe by rendering it nugatory. --Burke.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
subterfuge
n : something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an
activity; "he wasn't sick--it was just a subterfuge";
"the holding company was just a blind" [syn: {blind}]
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