subterfuge - vocabulary
A device or conduct used to evade a rule, escape a consequence, or hide a course of conduct; something used to hide the true nature of conduct or event.
Men felt a chill in their hearts; a damp in their minds. In a desperate effort to snuggle their feelings into some sort of warmth, one subterfuge was tried after another ... sentences swelled, adjectives multiplied, lyrics became epics.
—Virginia Woolf Orlando (1928)
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