Noun

(countable) An indirect or deceptive device or stratagem; a blind. Refers especially to war and politics.

Overt subterfuge in a region nearly caused a minor accident.

* 2010 , (Clare Vanderpool), (Moon Over Manifest)

How’s the spy hunt going? Uncovered any subterfuge ?

*{{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge —a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}

(uncountable) Deception; misrepresentation of the true nature of an activity.

Noun

(complicities)

(senseid)The state of being complicit; involvement as a partner or accomplice, especially in a crime or other wrongdoing.

* 1854 , , Hard Times , ch. 32:

He drew up a placard, offering Twenty Pounds reward for the apprehension of Stephen Blackpool, suspected of complicity in the robbery of Coketown Bank.

(archaic) Complexity.Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.

* 1861 , Dr. Marx, "Musical Education and Instruction," The Musical Times , vol. 10, no. 220, p. 53:

How easy is it, on the other hand, to an enlightened teacher, particularly in the beginning, to elucidate the various forms of rhythm by methodical arrangement in respect of simplicity and increasing complicity or mixture!