Subterfuge

n.

1.

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.

Noun

1.

subterfuge - 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" Synonyms: blind

airtight secrecy, alibi, apology, art, artful dodge, artifice, bag of tricks, bamboozlement, befooling, bickering, blind, bluff, bluffing, boggling, bosey, burial, burying, calculated deception, captiousness, catch, caviling, cheat, chicane, chicanery, chouse, circumvention, close secrecy, closeness, clouding, color, concealedness, concealment, conning, conspiracy, contrivance, coup, cover, cover story, cover-up, covering, covering up, covertness, craft, crypticness, curve, curve-ball, cute trick, darkening, deceit, deceiving, deception, deceptiveness, defrauding, delusion, delusiveness, design, device, dirty deal, dirty trick, discreetness, discretion, dishonesty, dodge, dodging, double-dealing, dupery, enmeshment, ensnarement, entanglement, entrapment, equivocation, evasion, evasiveness, expedient, facade, fakement, fallaciousness, fallacy, falseness, fast deal, feint, fencing, fetch, ficelle, flimflam, flimflammery, fond illusion, fooling, fraud, front, gambit, game, gimmick, gloss, googly, grift, guise, hairsplitting, hallucination, handle, hedging, hiddenness, hiding, hocus-pocus, hoodwinking, hugger-mugger, hugger-muggery, illusion, interment, intrigue, invisibility, joker, juggle, jugglery, kidding, knavery, lame excuse, little game, locus standi, logic-chopping, maneuver, mask, masking, mirage, move, mystification, nit-picking, obscuration, obscurement, occultation, ostensible motive, outwitting, overreaching, paltering, parrying, pass, pettifoggery, phantasm, plot, ploy, poor excuse, pretense, pretension, prevarication, protestation, public motive, pussyfooting, put-off, putting away, putting on, quibbling, racket, red herring, refuge, ruse, scheme, screen, screening, scurvy trick, secrecy, secretion, secretiveness, secretness, self-deception, semblance, sham, shift, shifting, show, shuffling, sidestepping, sleight, sleight of hand, sleight-of-hand trick, smoke screen, snow job, song and dance, spoofery, spoofing, stalking-horse, stratagem, strategy, swindling, tactic, tergiversation, the dark, trichoschistism, trick, trickery, trickiness, tricking, uncommunicativeness, varnish, veil, victimization, vision, wile, willful misconception, wily device, wishful thinking