masquerade
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: lifestyle
Etymology: The noun is borrowed from Middle French mascarade, masquarade, masquerade (modern French mascarade (“masquerade, masque; farce”)), and its etymon Italian mascherata (“masquerade”), from maschera (“mask”) + -ata. Maschera is derived from Medieval Latin masca (“mask”): see further there. The English word is cognate with Late Latin masquarata, Portuguese mascarada, Spanish mascarada.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Inflected forms:
form: masquerades
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: mascarade
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: maskerade
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: masquerades
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: masquerading
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: masqueraded
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: masqueraded
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: An assembly or party of people wearing (usually elaborate or fanciful) masks and costumes, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions.
pos: noun
tags: also
attributive
examples: I was invited to the masquerade party at their home.
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.
gloss: The act of wearing a mask or dressing up in a costume for, or as if for, a masquerade ball.
pos: noun
tags: also
attributive
gloss: An act of living under false pretenses; a concealment of something by a false or unreal show; a disguise, a pretence; also, a pretentious display.
pos: noun
tags: also
attributive
figuratively
examples: Verres in the youth of Cicero, Catiline and Clodius in his middle age, Mark Antony in his old age, have all been left to operate on the modern reader's feelings precisely through that masquerade of misrepresentation which invariably accompanied the political eloquence of Rome.
gloss: An assembly of varied, often fanciful, things.
pos: noun
tags: also
attributive
figuratively
gloss: A cosplay event at which costumed attendees perform skits.
pos: noun
tags: also
attributive
slang
gloss: A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask or masque.
pos: noun
tags: also
attributive
obsolete
gloss: A Spanish entertainment or military exercise in which squadrons of horses charge at each other, the riders fighting with bucklers and canes.
pos: noun
tags: also
attributive
obsolete
rare
gloss: To take part in a masquerade; to assemble in masks and costumes; (loosely) to wear a disguise.
pos: verb
tags: also
attributive
intransitive
examples: I’m going to masquerade as an old-fashioned pilot. What are you going to dress up as?
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.
gloss: To pass oneself off as a different person or a person with qualities that one does not possess; also, to make a pretentious show of being what one is not.
pos: verb
tags: also
attributive
figuratively
intransitive
examples: He masqueraded as my friend until the truth finally came out.
Ethan Hunt, the human missile of American intelligence that Tom Cruise has been popping back in to play for more than 20 years now, is masquerading as a mysterious terrorist, the perfectly named John Lark, to buy back some plutonium he’s lost to a cabal of doomsday extremists.
gloss: To conceal (someone) with, or as if with, a mask; to disguise.
pos: verb
tags: also
attributive
rare
transitive
Related words: mask
masque
masqueradingly
costume party
Derived words: masqueradish
masquerader
masqueradingly
masquerading
unmasqueraded
Translations: