"phony as a three-dollar bill" meaning in English

See phony as a three-dollar bill in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: En-au-phony as a three-dollar bill.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} phony as a three-dollar bill (not comparable)
  1. (simile, set phrase) Extremely phony; fake; dishonest; completely bogus. Tags: not-comparable Synonyms: bent as a nine-bob note, queer as a three-dollar bill, as fake as a two-dollar bill Translations (Translations): kiero kuin korkkiruuvi (Finnish), être faux comme un jeton (French), so falsch wie ein falscher Fünfziger (German), so falsch wie ein falscher Fuffziger (German), más falso que un duro sevillano [Spain, dated] (Spanish), más falso que un duro de madera [Spain, dated] (Spanish), más falso que Judas (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-phony_as_a_three-dollar_bill-en-adj-64cOTZG5 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English similes

Download JSON data for phony as a three-dollar bill meaning in English (3.2kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "phony as a three-dollar bill (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1978 July 2, Vincent Canby, “Film View”, in New York Times, retrieved 2018-01-23",
          "text": "Though the film has some handsome, carefully staged action sequences, its machismo seems as phony as a three‐dollar bill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 September 29, Glenn Kessler, “The Fact Checker: A bogus chart on Obama and the debt gets a new lease on life”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2018-01-23",
          "text": "But this chart, originally created by the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, is as phony as a three-dollar bill. Our friends at PolitiFact did a pretty thorough takedown of it in May, giving it their worst rating: “pants on fire.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Joan Elliott Pickart, The Marrying MacAllister",
          "text": "You know, Mr. Sunshine, your laid-back, look-at-the-bright-side, the-glass-is-half-full malarkey is starting to come across as very condescending, especially since I know that your life-is-just-a-bowl-of-cherries spiel is as phony as a three-dollar bill.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Extremely phony; fake; dishonest; completely bogus."
      ],
      "id": "en-phony_as_a_three-dollar_bill-en-adj-64cOTZG5",
      "links": [
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          "set phrase",
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        [
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        [
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        [
          "dishonest",
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        [
          "bogus",
          "bogus"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile; set phrase; simile; set phrase",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile, set phrase) Extremely phony; fake; dishonest; completely bogus."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bent as a nine-bob note"
        },
        {
          "word": "queer as a three-dollar bill"
        },
        {
          "word": "as fake as a two-dollar bill"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "kiero kuin korkkiruuvi"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "être faux comme un jeton"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "so falsch wie ein falscher Fünfziger"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "so falsch wie ein falscher Fuffziger"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "Spain",
            "dated"
          ],
          "word": "más falso que un duro sevillano"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "Spain",
            "dated"
          ],
          "word": "más falso que un duro de madera"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "más falso que Judas"
        }
      ]
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      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/35/En-au-phony_as_a_three-dollar_bill.ogg/En-au-phony_as_a_three-dollar_bill.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/En-au-phony_as_a_three-dollar_bill.ogg",
      "tags": [
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
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  "word": "phony as a three-dollar bill"
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{
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
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        "English lemmas",
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        "English similes",
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncomparable adjectives",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1978 July 2, Vincent Canby, “Film View”, in New York Times, retrieved 2018-01-23",
          "text": "Though the film has some handsome, carefully staged action sequences, its machismo seems as phony as a three‐dollar bill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 September 29, Glenn Kessler, “The Fact Checker: A bogus chart on Obama and the debt gets a new lease on life”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2018-01-23",
          "text": "But this chart, originally created by the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, is as phony as a three-dollar bill. Our friends at PolitiFact did a pretty thorough takedown of it in May, giving it their worst rating: “pants on fire.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Joan Elliott Pickart, The Marrying MacAllister",
          "text": "You know, Mr. Sunshine, your laid-back, look-at-the-bright-side, the-glass-is-half-full malarkey is starting to come across as very condescending, especially since I know that your life-is-just-a-bowl-of-cherries spiel is as phony as a three-dollar bill.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
        "Extremely phony; fake; dishonest; completely bogus."
      ],
      "links": [
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        [
          "phony",
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        [
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        [
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          "dishonest"
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        [
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      "qualifier": "simile; set phrase; simile; set phrase",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile, set phrase) Extremely phony; fake; dishonest; completely bogus."
      ],
      "tags": [
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  "sounds": [
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      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/35/En-au-phony_as_a_three-dollar_bill.ogg/En-au-phony_as_a_three-dollar_bill.ogg.mp3",
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      "tags": [
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "bent as a nine-bob note"
    },
    {
      "word": "queer as a three-dollar bill"
    },
    {
      "word": "as fake as a two-dollar bill"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "kiero kuin korkkiruuvi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "être faux comme un jeton"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "so falsch wie ein falscher Fünfziger"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "so falsch wie ein falscher Fuffziger"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "Spain",
        "dated"
      ],
      "word": "más falso que un duro sevillano"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "Spain",
        "dated"
      ],
      "word": "más falso que un duro de madera"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "más falso que Judas"
    }
  ],
  "word": "phony as a three-dollar bill"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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