Supercherie

//suːˌpɛ(ɹ)ʃəˈɹiː// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Foul play; an attack made by deceit. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "it is a Superchiery,[…] as being wel armed, to charge a man who hath but a piece of a sword, or being sound and strong, to set upon a man sore hurt."

  2. 2
    Deception, deceit; an instance of fraud. countable, uncountable

    "We[…]should certainly deny to any teacher of morals, in any age, who resorted to such ‘supercherie’ and charlatanism, any very high place among the instructors and benefactors of mankind."

Example

More examples

"it is a Superchiery,[…] as being wel armed, to charge a man who hath but a piece of a sword, or being sound and strong, to set upon a man sore hurt."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French supercherie, itself borrowed from Italian soperchieria.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.