▪ I. † diˈssimulate, a. Obs.
Also 5 -ait, 6 -at, disimilate.
[ad. L. dissimulāt-us, pa. pple. of dissimulāre: see next.]
Dissembled, feigned, pretended.
| c 1450 Henryson Mor. Fab. 17 This feinȝet Foxe, false and dissimulate. 1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 12 Fals feined & dissimulate fables. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. lxiii. 41 Fayre disimilate show. 1632 W. Lithgow Trav. iv. 145 By his dissimulate behaviour, he crept in favour with Christians. 1653 R. Baillie Dissuasive Vind. (1655) 22 [He] speaks in a dissimulate and prevaricating way. |
Hence † diˈssimulately adv.; also † diˈssimulateness.
| 1549 Compl. Scot. xx. 182 Ȝe sal be recompensit..for ȝour astuce dissymilitnes. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. xxxiii. 24 The butterfly spake his thoughte..Thant [i.e. the ant] contrary talked dissimilately. |
▪ II. dissimulate, v.
(dɪˈsɪmjʊleɪt)
[f. L. dissimulāt- ppl. stem of dissimulāre: see dissimule.
Rare bef. the end of 18th c.; not in J., T., nor Webster 1828.]
† 1. trans. To pretend not to see, leave unnoticed, pass over, neglect. Obs. rare.
| a 1533 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. ix. (R.) That al thyng be forgiuen to theim that be olde and broken, and to theim that be yonge and lusty to dissimulate for a time, and nothyng to be forgiuen to very yong children. |
2. To conceal or disguise under a feigned appearance; to dissemble.
| 1610 Bp. Carleton Jurisd. 204 Frederick..being taken prisoner when he would haue dissimulated his estate, he was knowne by his picture. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. iii, Public feeling required the meagreness of nature to be dissimulated by tall barricades of frizzed curls and bows. 1882 Stevenson New. Arab. Nts. (1884) 127 If ever..he described some experience personal to himself, it was so aptly dissimulated as to pass unnoticed with the rest. |
b. intr. To practise dissimulation, to dissemble.
| 1796 Mrs. Howell Anzoletta Zadoski I. 152 He could not so far dissimulate as to promise his concurrence. 1847 Lytton Lucretia ii, All weakness is prone to dissimulate. |
3. Electr. To conceal the presence of (electricity) by neutralizing it; cf. disguise v. 8.
| 1838 Faraday Exp. Res. Electr. §1684 The terms free charge and dissimulated Electricity convey therefore erroneous notions if they are meant to imply any difference as to the mode or kind of action. Ibid. The one [charge] is not more free or more dissimulated than the other. 1870 J. T. Sprague in Eng. Mech. 11 Feb. 519/3 The negative electricity..neutralises the positive..which is thus bound or dissimulated. |
Hence diˈssimulated ppl. a.; diˈssimulating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1794 Miss Gunning Packet I. 56 The mask..was torn from..the dissimulating Mrs. Johnson. 1838 Dissimulated electricity [see 3 above]. 1843 Browning Blot in Scutcheon i. iii, Some fierce leprous spot Will mar the brow's dissimulating. 1874 Mivart Evolution in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 773 The long dissimulated Atheism of Mill is now avowed. |