Sub"ter*fuge (?), n. [F., from LL. subterfugium, fr. L. subterfugere to flee secretly, to escape; subter under + fugere to flee. See Fugitive.]

That to which one resorts for escape or concealment; an artifice employed to escape censure or the force of an argument, or to justify opinions or conduct; a shift; an evasion.

Affect not little shifts and subterfuges, to avoid the force of an argument. I. Watts.

By a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render this position safe by rendering it nugatory. Burke.

 

© Webster 1913.

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