He claims to be a doctor, but he's nothing but a fast-talking phoney.
disapproval If you say that someone is phoney, you disapprove of them because they are pretending to be someone that they are not in order to deceive people. He looks totally phoney to me. Phoney is also a noun. `He's false, a phoney,' Harry muttered
disapproval If you describe something as phoney, you disapprove of it because it is false rather than genuine. He'd telephoned with some phoney excuse she didn't believe for a minute
A person who professes beliefs or opinions that he or she does not hold or assumes an identity other than their own
A phoney war is when two opposing groups are openly hostile towards each other or are in competition with each other, as if they were at war, but there is no real fighting. a period during which a state of war officially exists but there is no actual fighting