palm off
verb
Simple meaning
Sell as genuine, sell with the intention to deceive.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pahmawfSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɑˈmɔf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Sell as genuine, sell with the intention to deceive
idiomatic
To sell or dispose of (something) with the intent to deceive; to attempt to pass off a counterfeit or inferior product as genuine.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Sell as genuine, sell with the intention to deceive
Used this way, palm off is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.