From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishphoneypho‧ney (also phony American English) /ˈfəʊni $ ˈfoʊ-/ adjective informal 1 FALSEfalse or not real, and intended to deceive someone SYN fake a phoney American accent► see thesaurus at false2 PRETENDsomeone who is phoney is insincere and pretends to be something they are not —phoney noun [countable] He’s a complete phoney! —phoniness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
phoney• In Tehelka's suburban office in Delhi, they devised a false logo for West End and printed off phoney business cards.• Is that part of the disgraceful, phoney citizens charter?• And it was all the better for being hosted by real-deal Alice Cooper rather than fat phoney Phill Jupitus.• It is election year, and a phoney war is being waged between the two main parties. 