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

(en noun)

That which comes off or the act or process of coming off; emission.

*1883 , Royal Astronomical Society, NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service, OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Volume 45 - Page 96 :

[...] to observe as regards exact direction, owing (especially in the instance of pretty bright meteors) to the dense offcome of sparks from the nucleus, or to the phosphorescence it generates as the result of concussion with the air.

The way any thing or business turns out]]; the way a person [[come off, comes off from an encounter or enterprise; result; outcome; reception.

*1885 , Francis Warner, Physical expression: its modes and principles - Page 37 :

Such movement is called reflex action, or reflex movement, in distinction from the case of the statue, where there is no change or movement in the subject, which is passive, all expression being an offcome , not an " outcome;" [...]

*2010 , H. W. Dickinson, James Watt: Craftsman and Engineer - Page 21 :

In July he wrote to his father: " I have not yet got a master, they all make some objection or other" and no wonder, for who wanted such an "offcome "?

(UK, dialectal, chiefly, Scotland) An apology; excuse.

(UK, dialectal, chiefly, Scotland) An escape or evasion by subterfuge or pretext; a way of avoiding or getting out of a difficult or uncomfortable situation.