noun
definition
The act or conduct of an impostor; deception practiced under a false or assumed character; fraud or imposition
synonyms
Examples of impostures in a Sentence
His Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603) furnished Shakespeare with the names of the spirits mentioned by Edgar in King Lear.
Mention need only be made further of Isaac of Troki, whose anti-Christian polemic (1593) was translated into English by Moses Mocatta under the title of Faith Strengthened (1851); Solomon of Troki, whose Appiryon, an account of Karaism, was written at the request of Pufendorf (about 1700); and Abraham Firkovich, who, in spite of his impostures, did much for the literature of his people about the middle of the 19th century.
But on the whole the false prophets deserve that name, not for their conscious impostures, but because they were content to handle religious formulas, which they had learned by rote, as if they were intuitive principles, the fruit of direct spiritual experience, to enforce a conventional morality, shutting their eyes to glaring national sins, after the manner of professional orthodoxy, and, in brief, to treat the religious status quo as if it could be accepted without question as fully embodying the unchanging principles of all religion.
Lastly, I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends; for I have taken all knowledge to be my province; and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the one with frivolous disputations, confutations and verbosities, the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures, hath committed so many spoils, I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions and profitable inventions and discoveries - the best state of that province.
For while many persons believed that the princes still existed there was room for all manner of impostures and false rumours.
It is at any rate clear that during the latter years of his reign, when the time of impostures and rebellions had ended, Henry was able to dispense with parliaments to a great extent, and incurred no unpopularity by doing so.
It had a remarkable record in the exposure of shams and organized impostures, especially frauds on the charitable.