sham

 
Pronunciation: /ʃam/

noun

  • 1a thing that is not what it is purported to be: our current free health service is a sham
  • [mass noun] pretence: George abhorred sham and affectation
  • a person who pretends to be someone or something they are not: he was a sham, totally unqualified for his job as a senior doctor

adjective

  • bogus; false: a clergyman who arranged a sham marriage

verb (shams, shamming, shammed)

[no object]
  • falsely present something as the truth: was he ill or was he shamming?
  • [with object] pretend to be or to be experiencing: she shams indifference [no object, with complement]: the opossum escapes danger by shamming dead

Derivatives

shammer

noun

Origin:

late 17th century: perhaps a northern English dialect variant of the noun shame