adjective

• Giving a false or misleading impression.

  ‘a delusive perception of opportunity for all’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Perceptions can be delusive, especially when core beliefs are at stake.’
  • ‘Scientific truth is always paradox, if judged by everyday experience, which catches only the delusive nature of things.’
  • ‘But we should be clear that we are doing so for reasons of justice and not in the delusive hope of greater security.’
  • ‘Pop is about the glorious effusive, delusive Now, isn't it?’
  • ‘Wednesday's win was a pleasing, restorative result at a time when it was badly needed, but it would be delusive to read too much into it.’
  • ‘Fredric Jameson's 1981 lecture, ‘Postmodernism and Consumer Society,’ sheds some light on Wideman's portrayal of ghetto experience as delusive.’
  • ‘In each episode, he illustrates that the erasure of human history is both an elusive and delusive act, propelled by the desperate illusion that there is no consequence to one's actions.’
  • ‘It was not only delusive but dangerous, for it lulled the public into a false sense of security.’
  • ‘Ethics without science is at best uninformed and at worst delusive, while science without ethics is at best suspect and at worst downright dangerous.’
  • ‘However, as hard as she tried, her attempts were delusive.’
  • ‘The process is delusive and insufficient, exactly in proportion as the subject-matter of the observation is special and limited in extent.’
  • ‘A figurative pat on the head is worthless if youthful naivete is allowed to grow and flourish in a delusive psyche.’
  • ‘In my elimination of delusive thoughts, my conscious mind believes that my past delusions were wrong.’
  • ‘Thus we can have common-sense knowledge while not knowing that we are not having the delusive experience of a brain-in-a-vat.’
  • ‘A cat's vast sense of entitlement may be delusive but at least it's honest.’
  • ‘They brought back piquantly appropriate or delusive answers, piquant enough to condemn the stories.’

  Synonyms

  misleading, deceptive

  View synonyms