Colluding

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Forming a secret alliance to deceive or manipulate others
2. Working together in a covert manner to achieve dishonest ends
3. Engaging in hidden collaboration to mislead or trick others

Etymology: Its ancestor is the Latin verb "colludere," built from "com-" ("together") and "ludere" ("to play"). A literal rendering would be "to play together," and the sense of a secret arrangement grew out of that picture of two parties acting in concert behind a pretense. The Latin root "ludere" also gave English "ludicrous" and "allude," though "allude" comes from a different sense, "to play with or refer to." The English form arrived through Latin, and its meaning stayed close to the original idea of shared, covert action. The verb now describes people who secretly coordinate to deceive others, and the related noun "collusion" is commonly used in legal contexts to describe secret agreements to defraud or to bypass a rule. Within that sense, the play-acting origin still shows: the parties are performing a cooperation that is not what it appears to be.

Synonyms: conspiring, plotting, conniving

Antonyms: disagreeing, dissenting