sham Hear it!

sham Definition

sham (s̸ham)

noun

  1. Obsolete a trick or fraud
    1. an imitation that is meant to deceive; counterfeit
    2. a hypocritical action, deceptive appearance, etc.
  2. a person who is not what he or she pretends to be; fraud; impostor
  3. pillow sham

Etymology: prob. < N Eng dial. var. of shame

adjective

not genuine or real; false, counterfeit, pretended, etc.

transitive verb shammed, sham·ming

to be or make an imitation or false show of; counterfeit

intransitive verb

to pretend to be what one is not

sham Synonyms

sham

modif.

misleading, lying, untrue; see false 3. See syn. study at false.

sham Synonyms

sham

n.

fakery, pretense, pretext; see fake.

sham Finance Definition

  1. A transaction that is designed to trick or defraud investors.
  2. A means to avoid taxes fraudulently.

sham Law Definition

n

A counterfeit; something that is not what it seems or appears to be; a fake; a person pretending to be something or someone other than who she really is. 
adj. Deceitful or dishonest. 

sham Usage Examples

Object

acupuncture: Thus, for example: " Is standard manual acupuncture superior to sham acupuncture in improving the quality of life after ischaemic stroke?

Converse of object

  • expose: A boycott is surely called for to expose the sham of this " recall " .
  • become: The democratic process has become a sham - there is an elected dictatorship in Parliament.
  • make: The whole thing is a complete shambles and is making a sham of democracy.

Adjective modifier

  • miserable: The whole exercise brought home to me just what a miserable sham of a show EastEnders was.
  • mere: How little real secret communion with God, without which, the outside is mere sham.
  • complete: The pretense that official policy has been agreed in partnership with civil society is a complete sham.
  • total: Every moment of quality is ruined by another of total sham.
  • regulatory: This incident highlights the regulatory sham surrounding Bt crops [ 14, 15 ] .
  • cynical: Over the last 5 years this government's much proclaimed ethical foreign policy has been exposed for the cynical sham that it always was.

Modifies a noun

  • acupuncture: Acupuncture or sham acupuncture was given twice a week for two weeks, followed by once a week for 10 weeks.
  • marriage: Not only is she unfaithful, she proposes a sham marriage.
  • manipulation: There were no significant benefits with osteopathic manipulative treatment, as compared with sham manipulation.
  • injection: All of the trials except one compared corticosteroid to saline injection, the other using a sham injection.
  • democracy: Thus the first luxury to be discarded in this imperialist war is sham capitalist democracy.
  • fight: A view of the sham fight with Fort Denison at the left of the picture.

Modifying Another Word

not: Let us take the place of free thinkers and real skeptics, not shams.

Noun used with modifier

pillow: With every bedspread you order, recieve a matching pair of pillow shams FREE!

Preposition: of

  • democracy: The experience of the last four years has shown me quite clearly just what a sham of democracy the European Parliament really is.
  • Christianity: But he harbored deeper feelings on many subjects, particularly the sham of Christianity, noting them down and hiding them away.

Browse dictionary entries near sham

  1. shaly
  2. shalt
  3. shalom
  4. shallow
  5. shallot
  6. shallop
  7. shalloon
  8. shall
  9. shale oil
  10. shale
  1. sham pleading
  2. sham transaction
  3. shaman
  4. shamanism
  5. shamas
  6. Shamash
  7. shamble
  8. shambles
  9. shambolic
  10. shame