1. To lie, cheat, steal and otherwise "act out" in ways that we know are wrong. 2. A characteristic of alcoholism in which the alcoholic's thinking has become so distorted that behavior is false. 3. We tell people things that are just not so. Sometimes, we attempt to make people believe something is different than it really is. Some of us live our entire lives in a manner intended to hide the truth - mainly because we can’t bear the sight of it ourselves.