[n. of action f. late L. falsificāre to FALSIFY: see -ATION.]
1. The action of rendering (something) false; fraudulent alteration (of documents, of weights or measures, etc.); misrepresentation, perversion (of facts); counterfeiting; an instance of the same.
1565. Jewel, Repl. Harding, iv. § 15. 251. He … shoareth vp a ruinous mater with the falsification of his Doctours.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., III. § 5. 137. By falsification of the wordes, wittingly to endeuour that anything may seeme diuine which is not.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 38. Some adulterate Castoreum … this is a falsification discernible.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks. II. 36. The daily abuses that I haue concerning the booke of my Trauels, wherein I am accused for lies, and falsifications.
1682. J. Scarlett, The Stile of Exchanges, 351. If there were but any ground of suspicion that the Figures were altered, its still the same; but 2dly, If the Falsification were so neat, that it could not so easily be discerned nor suspected, then the Acceptant pays well.
1706. Collier, Refl. Ridic., 77. Affectation is the falsification of the whole Person.
1799. S. Turner, Anglo-Sax. (1836), I. III. iii. 176. Their … manifest falsifications both of manners and history.
1833. Lamb, Elia (1860), 358. By a wise falsification, the great masters of painting got at their true conclusions.
1868. E. Edwards, Raleigh, I. xxvi. 655. The purpose of the falsification of date in relation to the project of escape was, obviously, a double purpose.
2. The showing (something) to be groundless.
1885. Manch. Exam., 12 Dec., 5/2. The complete falsification of these confident assurances.
b. Equity. ‘The showing an item of charge in an account to be wrong’ (Webster, 1864, citing Story).
1845. J. W. Smith, A Manual of Equity Jurisprudence, 163. The proving an item to be wrongly inserted is a falsification.
