execution.

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ARTIFICE.

Synonyms:

art, craft, finesse, invention, stratagem,
blind, cunning, fraud, machination, subterfuge,
cheat, device, guile, maneuver, trick,
contrivance, dodge, imposture, ruse, wile.

A _contrivance_ or _device_ may be either good or bad. A _cheat_ is a
mean advantage in a bargain; a _fraud_, any form of covert robbery or
injury. _Imposture_ is a deceitful _contrivance_ for securing charity,
credit, or consideration. A _stratagem_ or _maneuver_ may be of the good
against the bad, as it were a skilful movement of war. A _wile_ is
usually but not necessarily evil.

E'en children followed with endearing _wile_.

GOLDSMITH _Deserted Village_, l. 184.

A _trick_ is often low, injurious, and malicious; we say a mean _trick_;
the word is sometimes used playfully with less than its full meaning. A
_ruse_ or a _blind_ may be quite innocent and harmless. An _artifice_ is
a carefully and delicately prepared _contrivance_ for doing indirectly
what one could not well do directly. A _device_ is something studied out
for promoting an end, as in a mechanism; the word is used of indirect
action, often, but not necessarily directed to an evil, selfish, or
injurious end. _Finesse_ is especially subtle _contrivance_, delicate
_artifice_, whether for good or evil. Compare FRAUD.

Antonyms:

artlessness, frankness, ingenuousness, openness, sincerity,
candor, guilelessness, innocence, simplicity, truth.
fairness, honesty,

* * * * *

ARTIST.

Synonyms:

artificer, artisan, mechanic, operative, workman.

_Artist_, _artificer_ and _artisan_ are all from the root of _art_, but
_artist_ holds to the esthetic sense, while _artificer_ and _artisan_
follow the mechanical or industrial sense of the word (see ART under
SCIENCE). _Artist_ thus comes only into accidental association with the
other words of this group, not being a synonym of any one of them and
having practically no synonym of its own. The work of the _artist_ is
creative; that of the _artisan_ mechanical. The man who paints a
beautiful picture is an _artist_; the man who makes pin-heads all day is
an _artisan_. The _artificer_ is between the two, putting more thought,
intelligence, and taste into his work than the _artisan_, but