In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
SHAMMED
SHAM
feign, sham, pretend, affect, dissemble
(verb) make believe with the intent to deceive; “He feigned that he was ill”; “He shammed a headache”
simulate, assume, sham, feign
(verb) make a pretence of; “She assumed indifference, even though she was seething with anger”; “he feigned sleep”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Verb
shammed
simple past tense and past participle of sham
Source: Wiktionary
SHAM
Sham, n. Etym: [Originally the same word as shame, hence, a disgrace, a trick. See Shame, n.]
1. That which deceives expectation; any trick, fraud, or device that deludes and disappoint; a make-believe; delusion; imposture, humbug. "A mere sham." Bp. Stillingfleet. Believe who will the solemn sham, not I. Addison.
2. A false front, or removable ornamental covering. Pillow sham, a covering to be laid on a pillow.
Sham, a.
Definition: False; counterfeit; pretended; feigned; unreal; as, a sham fight. They scorned the sham independence proffered to them by the Athenians. Jowett (Thucyd)
Sham, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shammed; p. pr. & vb. n. Shamming.]
1. To trick; to cheat; to deceive or delude with false pretenses. Fooled and shammed into a conviction. L'Estrange.
2. To obtrude by fraud or imposition. [R.] We must have a care that we do not . . . sham fallacies upon the world for current reason. L'Estrange.
3. To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign. To sham Abram or Abraham, to feign sickness; to malinger. Hence a malingerer is called, in sailors' cant, Sham Abram, or Sham Abraham.
Sham, v. i.
Definition: To make false pretenses; to deceive; to feign; to impose. Wondering . . . whether those who lectured him were such fools as they professed to be, or were only shamming. Macaulay.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
1 June 2025
BACKFIRE
(verb) come back to the originator of an action with an undesired effect; “Your comments may backfire and cause you a lot of trouble”; “the political movie backlashed on the Democrats”
Coffee Trivia
