Definition of "deception" []

• The use of deceit. (noun)
• The fact or state of being deceived. (noun)
• A ruse; a trick. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I said that my affections were already engaged: yet I meant you to believe, as you did, that I loved another; and the thought of the deception, for it _was deception_, has caused me ceaseless contrition."
• "Only disturbing to me, because the story shows what our deception is about."
• "Just as the deception is about to be discovered there absentee father turns up and we discover things are not quite as they seemed."