subterfuge Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an activity
    blind.
    • he wasn't sick--it was just a subterfuge
    • the holding company was just a blind

WordNet

Sub"ter*fuge noun
Etymology
F., from LL. subterfugium, fr. L. subterfugere to flee secretly, to escape; subter under + fugere to flee. See Fugitive.
Definitions
  1. That to which one resorts for escape or concealment; an artifice employed to escape censure or the force of an argument, or to justify opinions or conduct; a shift; an evasion.
    Affect not little shifts and subterfuges, to avoid the force of an argument. I. Watts.
    By a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render this position safe by rendering it nugatory. Burke.

Webster 1913