phony

This take is ungenerous but not surprising, given that one of the timeworn accusations against Holden Caulfield is hypocrisy: This guy calls everyone else phony, but he’s just as phony!

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026

Even today, students can tell you that the biggest phony in the book is Holden himself.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

Romania-based cybersecurity company Bitdefender also said it found 55 football-related scam ad campaigns on Meta platforms, including promotions for phony collectibles and merchandise.

From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026

Andrew Kirtzman, a communication strategist and Giuliani biographer, said New Yorkers are good at spotting a phony, but Mamdani’s love for the Knicks appears genuine.“

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026

Especially when he fell into one of his phony hip moods.

From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier

Soft know-it-alls from the city and phonies of any stripe receive rough treatment in his shows, such as the llama farmer from California who gets thrown under a Montana cattle guard in “Yellowstone.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

Mr. Musk trashed Mr. Zuckerberg’s Instagram as a dwelling for fakers and phonies in a Wednesday evening post to Twitter.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 6, 2023

CNN later debunked his claims, noting that “the ‘CNN Ukraine’ and ‘CNN Afghanistan’ accounts behind the tweets are both phonies that have been suspended by Twitter for violating its policy against impersonation.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2022

Baby boomers were phonies, they realized, just like everyone else.

From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2022

If you sat around there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in the world, I swear you did.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

Angelenos can spot a phony from far away — and Spencer, you’re turning out to be phonier than the fake drama on any of the television shows you ever appeared in.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

Arthur Julian, a writer on “F Troop,” noted that “real audiences sound phonier than the laugh track. Sometimes they freeze up and act unnatural.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026

But the screenplay, by David Benioff, Billy Ray, and Darren Lemke, can’t stand that level of scrutiny, and the closer we get to the actors mouthing their clunky, mock-allegorical dialogue, the phonier they seem.

From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2019

Is an imitation Kardashian any phonier than the real?

From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2011

The phonier it got, the more she cried.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

But in the past those moments were often the phoniest, as though she’d entered a kind of stage-school zombie state.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2017

When it came to decorating his own new home, he threw out all the rules of good taste and embraced the phoniest of fakes.

From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2014

What would be the phoniest thing of all would be for me to all of the sudden not be his friend.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 26, 2011

NEWPORT, Wales -- So it was, inevitably and predictably, the phoniest of conflicts.

From Golf Digest ● Sep. 30, 2010

“That was the phoniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Every time I go anywhere now it's all phonied up.

From Time Magazine Archive

She was indicted for inducing her client, convicted Kidnaper John William Irwin, to testify falsely in an effort to prove that Sinatra phonied up the kidnaping as a publicity stunt.

From Time Magazine Archive