sham
Other forms: shams; shamming; shammed; shamer
A sham is a fake. If you frequently order products advertised on late-night, hour-long television commercials, you’ve probably ended up with at least one item that was a sham. All-purpose, industrial strength stain remover, anyone?
Sham can be used to refer to people as well as to things. Remember that doctor from the late-night TV commercial advertising UltraMiracleCure vitamin pills? He’s probably a sham, or a quack. Some sources claim that the word sham originated in the 17th century and was derived from the English word shame, but who knows? Maybe that theory’s a sham too.
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something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to betypes:fake booka fake in the form of an imitation book; used to fill bookcases of people who wish to appear scholarlyPotemkin villagesomething that seems impressive but in fact lacks substancetype of:imitationsomething copied or derived from an original
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a person who makes deceitful pretenses
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adopted in order to deceive“sham modesty”
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make believe with the intent to deceive“He shammed a headache”types:play possumto pretend to be deadtake a divepretend to be knocked out, as of a boxermoutharticulate silently; form words with the lips onlytype of:
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make a pretense of
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Vocabulary lists containing sham
Harry Potter now has children of his own, but when his son Albus begins school at Hogwarts, it seems that the past is returning to haunt them both.
Three young refugees — a Jewish boy fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939, a Cuban girl suffering under the Castro regime in 1994, and a Muslim boy trying to escape war-torn Syria in 2015 — make desperate journeys in search of freedom and safety.
No time to scour the headlines or watch the news? No problem! We’ve rounded up the top words heard, read, debated, and discussed this week. This week proved that Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) applies to everyday life. China slapped tariffs on U.S. pork, fruit and other exports to retaliate against tariffs the U.S. recently imposed on Chinese goods. Experts fear this could expedite a trade war between the two countries. In what some see as a reaction to the unfavorable opinions held by many judges on Trump's immigration policy, the Justice Department set new quotas for immigration judges to meet. Are these unprecedented quotas a sign that the administration holds a grudge, or just a natural response as dictated by Newton's law? Take a look back at the week that was, vocabulary style.