adj.
    - not according with truth or fact. ▸invalid or illegal: ![]()  false imprisonment. 
- deliberately intended to deceive. ▸artificial. 
- not actually so; illusory. ▸used in names of plants, animals, and gems that superficially resemble the thing properly so called, e.g. false scorpion. 
- disloyal.
Phrase
  
    
      - play someone false
 deceive or cheat someone.
 
  Derivative
  
    - falsely adv.
- falseness n.
- falsity n.
 
  Etymology
  OE fals ‘fraud’, from L. falsum ‘fraud’, neut. past part. of fallere ‘deceive’; reinforced or re-formed in ME from OFr. fals, faus ‘false’.