dissemble

“This Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 2026

But most of us had come to expect our leaders to duck, deal and dissemble until it would be too late.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025

The motormouthed Francie turns to the audience with asides and misdirections that dissemble as much as they reveal.

From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2022

They don't merely exaggerate, dissemble or put a biased spin on things.

From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2021

Crooked Ava had not lost her power to dissemble since her days of harassing Cora—she hooted and stomped as if it were the height of the Christmas celebrations.

From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead

Evgeny dissembles: “Nothing. It is perhaps the fragrant scent of a passing track team.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026

Maradona, young and handsome, dissembles for a moment, before the president of the club, Corrado Ferlaino, steps in to reject the notion with full-throated anger.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 13, 2019

Looking at the tape of her statement, it is remarkable how smoothly she dissembles.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 18, 2019

Sure, she compromises, she sometimes dissembles and at times her judgment has been flawed.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 5, 2016

And the man, too, dissembles; for as he looks the form fades into the gloom, and he decides to run on parallel to the brushwood, with his gun ready.

From The Story of the Trapper by A. C. Laut

When a suspicious F.B.I. agent later interviewed him about the trip, Hua dissembled and said he was only visiting friends and family.

From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2023

He was said to have dissembled when people on the call asked about whether repeat shop lifters or people who commit assaults without a weapon would be prosecuted and face jail terms.

From Fox News ● Jan. 20, 2022

Politicians have exaggerated and dissembled since time immemorial, including in their email dispatches.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2021

“I bent over backwards to try to work with the administration, but they delayed, dissembled, and degraded our committee’s efforts.”

From Washington Post ● Jun. 12, 2019

Joan dissembled the odd emotion with which she recognized the man, and turned to Fowey.

From Joan Thursday by Louis Joseph Vance

This fits his dissembling about his reason for vetoing the tax-credit bill.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026

“Family Plan,” starring Mark Wahlberg as the dissembling patriarch, plays it for laughs, using his deception and its unraveling as a springboard for screwball comedy.

From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2023

But altogether, the scope of his lying certainly seems to go beyond dishonesty or dissembling for monetary gain alone.

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2023

That dissembling fits a pattern in the officers’ defense, which has relied on a rendering of events plainly contradicted by video evidence.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 14, 2021

“Ah well,” I said, dissembling, “perhaps I exaggerate. If they return we shall have a fine dowry for our daughter, and that is indeed a good thing.”

From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya