falsify

English

Etymology

From French falsifier, from Late Latin falsificāre, present active infinitive of falsificō (“make false, corrupt, counterfeit, falsify”), from Latin falsificus, from falsus (“false”), corresponding to false +‎ -ify.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɒlsɪfaɪ/

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Verb

falsify (third-person singular simple present falsifies, present participle falsifying, simple past and past participle falsified)

1. (transitive) To alter so as to make false; to make incorrect.

   to falsify a record or document

   • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande , Dublin: Societie of Stationers, , →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland  (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: Society of Stationers, Hibernia Press, y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:

     The Irish bards use to forge and falsify everything as they list, to please or displease any man.

2. (transitive) To misrepresent.
3. (transitive) To prove to be false.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     By how much better than my word I am, / By so much shall I falsify men's hope.

   • a. 1720 (date written), Joseph Addison, “Section VIII. Against Atheism and Infidelity.”, in The Evidences of the Christian Religion, , London: J Tonson , published 1730, →OCLC, subsection VI, page 66:

     Hovv much greater confirmation of his faith vvould he have received, had he ſeen our Saviour's prophecy ſtand good in the deſtruction of the temple, and the diſſolution of the Jevviſh œconomy, vvhen Jevvs and Pagans united all their endeavours under Julian the Apoſtate, to baffle and falſify the prediction?

4. (transitive) To counterfeit; to forge.

   to falsify money

5. (transitive, accounting) To show (an item of charge inserted in an account) to be wrong.
   • 1833, Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States:

     It will allow the account to stand, with liberty to the plaintiff to surcharge and falsify it

   • 1912, Peyton Boyle, The Federal Reporter: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit District Courts of the United States:

     The chancery rules governing proceedings to surcharge and falsify accounts are applicable only where an account has been stated between the parties, or where something equivalent thereto has been done.

6. (transitive, obsolete) To baffle or escape.
   • a. 1680, Samuel Butler, Fragments of an intended second part of the foregoing satire:

     For disputants (as swordsmen use to fence / With blunted foyles) engage with blunted sense; / And as th' are wont to falsify a blow, / Use nothing else to pass upon a foe […]

7. (transitive, obsolete) To violate; to break by falsehood.

   to falsify one's faith or word

   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, →OCLC:

     he would not falsify his promise to Philanax

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• “falsify”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “falsify”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.