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Tending to elude; using arts or deception to escape; adroitly escaping or evading; eluding the grasp; fallacious. Elusive of the bridal day, she gives Fond hopes to all, and all with hopes deceives. Pope. -- E*lu"sive*ly, adv. -- E*lu"sive*ness, n.

over with better, or better appearing, material than the mass consists of, for purpose of deception, as the surface of a box of tea, a barrel of sugar, etc.

Deceptive or false appearance; deceitfulness; that which misleads the eye or the mind; deception. Winning by conquest what the first man lost, By fallacy surprised. Milton.

A freak or whim; also, a falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext; deception; delusion. [Obs.] A perpetual abuse and flam upon posterity. South.

Deception deliberately practiced with a view to gaining an unlawful or unfair advantage; artifice by which the right or interest of another is injured; injurious stratagem; deceit; trick. If success a lover's toil attends, Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends. Pope.

Cheating; deception. Marston.

A jest or scoff; a trick or deception. [Obs.] Where's the Bastard's braves, and Charles his gleeks Shak.

The arts and practices or habits of gypsies; deception; cheating; flattery.

A deception for mockery or mischief; a deceptive trick or story; a practical joke. Macaulay.

A spirit of deception; cajolery; trickishness.

To practice trick or deception. To impose on or upon, to pass or put a trick on; to delude. "He imposes on himself, and mistakes words for things." Locke.

An excessive, arbitrary, or unlawful exaction; hence, a trick or deception put on laid on others; cheating; fraud; delusion; imposture. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition. Shak.

es upon others; a person who assumes a character or title not his own, for the purpose of deception; a pretender. "The fraudulent impostor foul." Milton.

The act or conduct of an impostor; deception practiced under a false or assumed character; fraud or imposition; cheating. From new legends And fill the world with follies and impostures. Johnson.

Cheat; deception. [Obs.] Sir T. Brown.

To play the jilt; to practice deception in love; to discard lovers capriciously. Congreve.

An imposture; a deception. Tennyson. A juggle of state to cozen the people. Tillotson.

Sleight of hand; a trick of sleight of hand; hence, any artful deception or trick. He of legierdemayne the mysteries did know. Spenser. The tricks and legerdemain by which men impose upon their own souls. South.

A falsehood uttered or acted for the purpose of deception; an intentional violation of truth; an untruth spoken with the intention to deceive. It is willful deceit that makes a lie. A man may act a lie, as by pointing his finger in a wrong direction when a traveler inquires of him his road. Paley.

he manipulation of political bodies; sometimes, a management or treatment for purposes of deception or fraud.