masquerade
Pronunciation Noun
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Pronunciation Noun
masquerade (plural masquerades) (also attributively)
- An assembly or party of people wear#Verb|wearing (usually elaborate#Adjective|elaborate or fanciful) mask#Noun|masks and costume#Noun|costumes, and amusing themselves with dancing#Noun|dancing, conversation, or other diversions.
- Synonyms: masque
- I was invited to the masquerade party at their home.
- 1717, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: Printed by W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], OCLC 43265629 ↗, canto I, page 125 ↗:
- What guards the purity of melting Maids, / In courtly Balls and midnight Maſquerades, / Safe from the treach'rous friend, and daring ſpark, / The glance by day, the whiſper in the dark; / [...] / 'Tis but their Sylph, the wiſe Celeſtials know, / Tho' Honour is the word with Men below.
- The act#Noun|act of wearing a mask or dressing up in a costume for, or as if for, a masquerade ball#Noun|ball.
- (figuratively) An act of live#Verb|living under false pretenses; a concealment of something by a false or unreal show#Noun|show; a disguise#Noun|disguise, a pretence; also, a pretentious display#Noun|display.
- (figuratively) An assembly of varied#Adjective|varied, often fanciful, things.
- (fandom) A cosplay event at which costumed#Adjective|costumed attendees perform skits.
- (obsolete) A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask or masque#Noun|masque.
- (obsolete, rare) A Spanish entertainment or military exercise#Noun|exercise in which squadrons of horse#Noun|horses charge#Verb|charge at each other, the riders fight#Verb|fighting with bucklers and cane#Noun|canes.
- French: bal masqué, mascarade
- Italian: mascherata, ballo in maschera, festa in costume
- Portuguese: baile de máscaras
- Russian: маскара́д
- Spanish: mascarada
- German: Maskerade
- Italian: farsa, sceneggiata, pagliacciata
- Spanish: mascarada
masquerade (masquerades, present participle masquerading; past and past participle masqueraded)
- (intransitive) To take part in a masquerade#Noun|masquerade; to assemble in mask#Noun|masks and costume#Noun|costumes; (loosely) to wear#Verb|wear a disguise#Noun|disguise.
- I’m going to masquerade as the wikipede. What are you going to dress up as?
- 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Anianus, &c.] Fab[le] CCXXIV. An Ass in a Lyon’s Skin.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: Printed for R[ichard] Sare, […], OCLC 228727523 ↗, page 196 ↗:
- There was a Freak took an Aſs in the Head, to Scoure abroad on the Ramble; and away he goes into the Woods, Maſquerading up and down in a Lyon's Skin.
- (intransitive, figuratively) To pass off as a different person or a person with quality#Noun|qualities that one does not possess; also, to make a pretentious show#Noun|show of being what one is not.
- He masqueraded as my friend until the truth finally came out.
- (transitive, rare) To conceal (someone) with, or as if with, a mask; to disguise#Verb|disguise.
- Italian: travestirsi, mascherarsi
- Portuguese: mascarar
- Russian: маскирова́ться
- Spanish: masquerada
- French: déguiser
- Italian: spacciarsi, travestirsi
- Russian: переодева́ться
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003