ruse
ROOZnounMeaning a trick meant to fool someone
Memory hook a ROSE? No, a RUSE!. Rex offers Pip a lovely rose, but it is a joke flower that squirts water in his face; the gift was a ruse.
The phone call about a free cruise was a ruse to get our bank number.
In context The “quick stop at the dentist” was only a ruse; when we pulled into the lot, all my friends jumped out from behind the cars to shout “Happy birthday!”
Similar trick, ploy, deception, trickery
From French ruse, which first meant the doubling back of a hunted animal to throw off the hounds.