Part 32

This term in the Roman law included not only forgery, but every species of fraud and deceit. It never has been used in so extensive a sense in modern common law, in which its predominant significance is forgery, though it also includes perjury and offenses of a like character. Burrill. Greenleaf.

Fal"si*fi`a*ble (?), a. [Cf. OF. falsifiable.] Capable of being falsified, counterfeited, or corrupted. Johnson.

Fal`si*fi*ca"tion (?), n. [Cf. F. falsification.] 1. The act of falsifying, or making false; a counterfeiting; the giving to a thing an appearance of something which it is not.

To counterfeit the living image of king in his person exceedeth all falsifications.

Bacon.

2. Willful misstatement or misrepresentation.

Extreme necessity . . . forced him upon this bold and violent falsification of the doctrine of the alliance.

Bp. Warburton.

3. (Equity) The showing an item of charge in an account to be wrong. Story.

Fal"si*fi*ca`tor (?), n. [Cf. F. falsificateur.] A falsifier. Bp. Morton.

Fal"si*fi`er (?), n. One who falsifies, or gives to a thing a deceptive appearance; a liar.

Fal"si*fy (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Falsified (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Falsifying.] [L. falsus false + -ly: cf. F. falsifier. See False, a.] 1. To make false; to represent falsely.

The Irish bards use to forge and falsify everything as they list, to please or displease any man.

Spenser.

2. To counterfeit; to forge; as, to falsify coin.

3. To prove to be false, or untrustworthy; to confute; to disprove; to nullify; to make to appear false.

By how much better than my word I am, By so much shall I falsify men's hope.

Shak.

Jews and Pagans united all their endeavors, under Julian the apostate, to baffie and falsify the prediction.

Addison.

4. To violate; to break by falsehood; as, to falsify one's faith or word. Sir P. Sidney.

5. To baffle or escape; as, to falsify a blow. Butler.

6. (Law) To avoid or defeat; to prove false, as a judgment. Blackstone.

7. (Equity) To show, in accounting, (an inem of charge inserted in an account) to be wrong. Story. Daniell.

8. To make false by multilation or addition; to tamper with; as, to falsify a record or document.

Fal"si*fy, v. i. To tell lies; to violate the truth.

It is absolutely and universally unlawful to lie and falsify.

South.