Meanings
- obsoleteuncountableDeception, dissimulation.
For he in counterfeisance did excell, / And all the wyles of wemens wits knew passing well.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC1 more example
[I]t is but bare, simple, plain, honest, homely truth, without welt, without guard. It will abide none but native colours. It scorneth to woo favour with farding and licking and counterfeisance. It hates either bought or borrowed beauty; and therefore, like some native face among the painted, looks coarse and rusty.
1623 September 21, Joseph Hall, “Sermon X. The Best Bargain: A Sermon Preached to the Court at Theobald’s on Sunday, September 21, 1623”, in Philip Wynter, editor, The Works of the Right Reverend Joseph Hall, D.D., new revised and corrected edition, volume V, Oxford: At the University Press, published 1863, →OCLC, page 179
Origin
- Frenchcontrefaisance
- Englishcounterfeisance
From French contrefaisance.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
counterfeisance. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/counterfeisance
“counterfeisance.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/counterfeisance. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “counterfeisance,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/counterfeisance.
Source: counterfeisance on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.