Category:Duplicity

Du*plic"i*ty, n.; pl. Duplicities. Etym: [F. duplicité, L. duplicitas, fr. duplex double. See Duplex.]

1. Doubleness; a twofold state. [Archaic] Do not affect duplicities nor triplicities, nor any certain number of parts in your division of things. I. Watts.

2. Doubleness of heart or speech; insincerity; a sustained form of deception which consists in entertaining or pretending to entertain one of feelings, and acting as if influenced by another; bad faith. Far from the duplicity wickedly charged on him, he acted his part with alacrity and resolution. Burke.

3. (Law) (a) The use of two or more distinct allegations or answers, where one is sufficient. Blackstone. (b) In indictments, the union of two incompatible offenses. Wharton.

Syn. -- Double dealing; dissimulation; deceit; guile; deception; falsehood.