Meanings
dissimulate1
present singular third person dissimulates · participle present dissimulating · participle past dissimulated · past dissimulated
- intransitiveTo practise deception by concealment or omission, or by feigning a false appearance; to dissemble.
1 more example
But now, as he paced alone in his apartment, now that he was not upon exhibition, now when there was no eye to behold him, and there was no reason to dissimulate or veil a single thought or feeling, his look was anything but open; the last trace of frankness disappeared; the muscles at mouth and eyes shifted; lines and planes intermingled and altered subtly; there was a moment of misty transformation – and the face of another man emerged. It was the face of a man uninstructed in mercy; it was a shrewd and planning face: alert, resourceful, elaborately perceptive, and flawlessly hard.
1913, Booth Tarkington, chapter 13, in The Flirt, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 212 - transitiveTo disguise or hide by adopting a false appearance; to dissemble.
[P]ublic feeling required the meagreness of nature to be dissimulated by tall barricades of frizzed curls and bows.
1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter III, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 38 - raretransitiveTo connive at; to wink at; to pretend not to notice.
That al thyng be forgiven to theim that be olde and broken, and to theim that be yonge and lusty to dissimulate for a time, and nothyng to be forgiuen to very yong children.
1533 John Bourchier (Lord Berners), The Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius 9
dissimulate2
- not comparableobsoleteFeigned, simulated, pretended, false.
Where they may win ought : by fayre diſimilate ſhow, There they flickar, and flatter, in fauer to grow.
1556, John Heywood, chapter LXIII, in The Spider and the Flie. […], London: […] Tho[mas] Powell, →OCLC; republished as A[dolphus] W[illiam] Ward, editor, The Spider and the Flie. […] (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 6), Manchester: […] [Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1894, →OCLC, page 286
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
dissimulate · verb
- Latindissimulātus
- Middle Englishdissimulaten, dissimilaten
- Englishdissimulate
Inherited from Middle English dissimulaten, dissimilaten, from Latin dissimulātus + -en (“verb-forming suffix”), perfect passive participle of dissimulō (“to conceal, to pretend, to neglect”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from dissimilis (“unlike”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). Compare the obsolete dissimule (“to conceal, disguise”), from Old French dissimuler (French dissimuler), ultimately from the same Latin root. Doublet of dissemble, dissimilate, and dissimule.
More words from Middle English, Latin
Full word history & related roots →dissimulate · adjective
- Middle Englishdissimulat(e), dissimilat(e)
- Englishdissimulate
Inherited from Middle English dissimulat(e), dissimilat(e) (attested in Robert Henryson with an active sense, see the citation page), from dissimulātus, see Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian преструвам се, симулирам
- преструвам се (prestruvam se)to deceive by concealment or omission
- симулирам (simuliram)to deceive by concealment or omission
Czech přetvařovat se
- přetvařovat seto deceive by concealment or omission
German sich verstellen
- sich verstellento deceive by concealment or omission
Greek συγκαλύπτω, αποκρύπτω
- συγκαλύπτω (sygkalýpto)to deceive by concealment or omission
- αποκρύπτω (apokrýpto)to deceive by concealment or omission
Māori tuapeka, whakatuapeka
- tuapekato deceive by concealment or omission
- whakatuapekato deceive by concealment or omission
Norwegian fortie
- fortieto deceive by concealment or omission
Spanish disimular, tapiñar
- disimularto deceive by concealment or omission
- tapiñarto deceive by concealment or omission
Cite this entry
dissimulate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissimulate
“dissimulate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissimulate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dissimulate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissimulate.
Source: dissimulate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.