forgery

The act of forging metal into shape.

Noun

  1. The act of forging metal into shape.
    • the forgery of horseshoes
  2. The act of forging, fabricating, or producing falsely; especially the crime of fraudulently making or altering a writing or signature purporting to be made by another, the false making or material alteration of or addition to a written instrument for the purpose of deceit and fraud.
    • the forgery of a bond
    • Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the...
  3. That which is forged, fabricated, falsely devised or counterfeited.
  4. An invention, creation.

Origin

Recorded since 1574; from forge + -ery, from Middle English forgen, via Anglo-Norman forger, from Old French forgier, from Latin fabricārī (“to frame, construct, fabricate”), itself from fabrica (“workshop; construction”), from faber (“workman, smith”). (fake): Compare typologically Russian кова́рный (kovárnyj), кова́рство (kovárstvo), ко́зни (kózni) (akin to кова́ть (kovátʹ), ку́зница (kúznica)).

Forms

forgeries

Synonyms

counterfeit fake

Derived

cross-site request forgery forger philatelic forgery postal forgery sporgery