ARTIFICE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does artifice mean? 

• ARTIFICE (noun)
  The noun ARTIFICE has 1 sense:

1. a deceptive maneuver (especially to avoid capture)

  Familiarity information: ARTIFICE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ARTIFICE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A deceptive maneuver (especially to avoid capture)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

artifice; ruse

Hypernyms ("artifice" is a kind of...):

maneuver; manoeuvre; tactical maneuver; tactical manoeuvre (a move made to gain a tactical end)

 Context examples 

I carried pistols and a dagger constantly about me and was ever on the watch to prevent artifice, and by these means gained a greater degree of tranquillity.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Nothing is farther from my thoughts than to attribute any degree of artifice to Mr. Jorkins.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Emma saw its artifice, and returned to her first surmises.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Such a strain of shallow artifice could not impose even upon Catherine.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

There was no room in him for sham or artifice.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I abhor artifice, particularly in children; it is my duty to show you that tricks will not answer: you will now stay here an hour longer, and it is only on condition of perfect submission and stillness that I shall liberate you then.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She could not enter the house again, could not be in the same room to which she had with such vain artifice retreated three months ago, to lace up her boot, without recollecting.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

In this coffer, his riches hid themselves with such a tenacious modesty, that the smallest instalments could only be tempted out by artifice; so that Peggotty had to prepare a long and elaborate scheme, a very Gunpowder Plot, for every Saturday's expenses.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)