Search the Dictionary

misleads the eye or the mind; deception. Winning by conquest what the first man lost, By fallacy surprised. Milton.

To confute; to prove the fallacy of. [Obs.] God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. Bacon.

To set free from mistakes; to undeceive; to disengage from fallacy or deception; to set right. To undeceive and disabuse the people. South. If men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves or artifice, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. J. Adams.…

Embodying or pertaining to a fallacy; illogical; fitted to deceive; misleading; delusive; as, fallacious arguments or reasoning. -- Fal*la"cious*ly, adv. -Fal*la"cious*ness, n.

A false notion or conception; a fallacy. Bacon. The idols of preconceived opinion. Coleridge.

false in point of form, that is, which is contrary to logical rules or formulæ; a formal fallacy, or pseudo- syllogism, in which the conclusion does not follow from the premises.

The doctrine or mode of reasoning practiced by a sophist; hence, any fallacy designed to deceive. When a false argument puts on the appearance of a true one, then it is properly called a sophism, or "fallacy". I. Watts. Let us first rid ourselves of sophisms, those of depraved men, and those of heartless philosophers.…

To cause to be no longer deceived; to free from deception, fraud, fallacy, or mistake. South.