Assume, Affect, Pretend, Simulate, Feign, Counterfeit and Sham all mean to put on a false or deceptive appearance.
Assume often implies a pardonable motive rather than an intent to deceive.
- it sometimes happens that by assuming an air of cheerfulness we become cheerful in reality
—Cowper
To affect is to make a show of possessing or using something, usually for effect, but sometimes because of one’s liking for it.
- affect plainness of speech
- affect a gesture, an opinion, a phrase, because it is the rage with a large number of persons
—Hazlitt - Jones had really that taste for humor which others affect
—Fielding
Pretend implies overt profession of what is false.
- that pretended liking called politeness
—L. P. Smith - pretend to be insane
- even their clowns had to be learned or to pretend learning
—Highet
To simulate is to assume the characteristics of something else by imitating its appearance or outward signs.
- trees hewn to simulate formidable artillery pieces were dragged into position all along the ramparts
—A mer. Guide Series: La.
Feign implies more invention than pretend, less specific imitation of life than simulate.
- I grow angry and 1 curse them, and they feign penitence, but behind my back I know they call me a toothless old ape
—Kipling
But feign and simulate are often interchangeable.
Counterfeit implies the highest degree of verisimilitude of any of the words in this group.
- are you not mad indeed? or do you but counterfeit?
—Shak. - many noblemen gave the actor-manager access to their collections of armor and weapons in order that his accouterment should exactly counterfeit that of a Norman baron
—Shaw
Sham implies feigning with an intent to deceive; it usually connotes deception so obvious that it fools only the gullible.
- sham sickness
- sham sleeping
- when the curtain falls there are more actors shamming dead upon the stage than actors upright
—H. A. L. Craig