masquerade

noun

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mas·quer·ade | \ ˌma-skə-ˈrād

Definition of masquerade

(Entry 1 of 2)

1a : a social gathering of persons wearing masks and often fantastic costumes

b : a costume for wear at such a gathering

2 : an action or appearance that is mere disguise or show

masquerade

verb

masqueraded; masquerading

Definition of masquerade (Entry 2 of 2)

intransitive verb

1a : to disguise oneself also : to go about disguised

b : to take part in a masquerade

2 : to assume the appearance of something one is not

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Examples of masquerade in a Sentence

Noun She could not keep up the masquerade any longer. although she was deeply bored, she maintained a masquerade of polite interest as her guest droned on Verb He was masquerading under a false name.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Some students wore festive masquerade ball masks with their formalwear. — Karie Angell Luc, chicagotribune.com, 24 May 2021 At a lavish masquerade ball, a tall, gaunt guest arrives to ruin their careless fun. — Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2021 The controversial Mystic Krewe of Nyx held its annual Carnival masquerade ball in a Biloxi, Mississippi, casino hotel on Saturday night. — Doug Maccash | Staff Writer, NOLA.com, 25 Jan. 2021 And his work neither expresses nor shows solidarity with racist ideologies of any kind but instead explores issues of violence, self-concealment and masquerade. — Eric Gibson, WSJ, 30 Sep. 2020 But this is a masquerade, one that conceals hidden trauma. — Timothy Aubry, The New Republic, 17 Dec. 2020 Last year, the headquarters office in San Jose, California, rented a football stadium for a glitzy, Venetian-style masquerade ball and provided free childcare for parents. — Anne Quito, Quartz at Work, 16 Dec. 2020 Of course, Joe and Jerry are also motivated to perpetuate their masquerade by that oldest of drives: plain old lust. — Peter Tonguette, WSJ, 9 Oct. 2020 Or the reckless ecstasy of unhinged saccharine and homemade masquerade that is Halloween in the hood that gave me permission to reimagine myself. — Junauda Petrus-nasah, Star Tribune, 16 Sep. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb Many mundane objects can masquerade as something otherworldly: experimental aircraft, atmospheric quirks, drones, balloons, even the planet Venus. — Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 25 May 2021 In apparel, Nike’s figured out the sweet spot for high-performance fitness pieces that masquerade as real clothes. — Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue, 24 May 2021 Some of them could be antagonists who are either looking for redemption or who want to masquerade as superheroes. — Chris Smith, BGR, 6 Apr. 2021 Hahn locked into the smile-till-you-scream sitcom masquerade better than anyone. — Darren Franich, EW.com, 5 Mar. 2021 The team bolstered their HARPS work with concurrent observations from two other telescopes to monitor for flares and starspots that could masquerade as planets. — Lee Billings, Scientific American, 24 Aug. 2016 News organizations—and other entities that masquerade as them—are turning to increasingly desperate measures for survival. — Anna Wiener, The New Yorker, 28 Dec. 2020 But some see these relationships between fans and idols as parasocial ones — largely one-sided interactions with mass-media figures that masquerade as friendship — and worry about the long-term mental health effects of such devotion. — New York Times, 25 Dec. 2020 Tricorache says that sometimes dealers masquerade as conservation organizations or animal rescue operations in attempts to navigate around laws and permitting requirements. — Animals, 18 Dec. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'masquerade.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.