FORGERY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does forgery mean? 

• FORGERY (noun)
  The noun FORGERY has 2 senses:

1. a copy that is represented as the original

2. criminal falsification by making or altering an instrument with intent to defraud

  Familiarity information: FORGERY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORGERY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A copy that is represented as the original

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

counterfeit; forgery

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

imitation (something copied or derived from an original)

Derivation:

forge (make a copy of with the intent to deceive)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Criminal falsification by making or altering an instrument with intent to defraud

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

falsehood; falsification (the act of rendering something false as by fraudulent changes (of documents or measures etc.) or counterfeiting)

crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)

Derivation:

forge (make a copy of with the intent to deceive)

 Context examples 

I did so, and found my other neighbour to be a young fellow in much the same position as myself, whose crime had been forgery.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Put the pearl in the safe, Watson, said he, and get out the papers of the Conk-Singleton forgery case.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I gave in the cheque myself, and said I had every reason to believe it was a forgery.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Yes, sir. Fraud, forgery, and conspiracy. He and some others. He set the others on. It was a deep plot for a large sum. Sentence, transportation for life.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Some were undone by lawsuits; others spent all they had in drinking, whoring, and gaming; others fled for treason; many for murder, theft, poisoning, robbery, perjury, forgery, coining false money, for committing rapes, or sodomy; for flying from their colours, or deserting to the enemy; and most of them had broken prison; none of these durst return to their native countries, for fear of being hanged, or of starving in a jail; and therefore they were under the necessity of seeking a livelihood in other places.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The signatures to this instrument purporting to be executed by Mr. W. and attested by Wilkins Micawber, are forgeries by—HEEP.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Again and again in cases of the most varying sorts—forgery cases, robberies, murders—I have felt the presence of this force, and I have deduced its action in many of those undiscovered crimes in which I have not been personally consulted.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)