MASQUERADE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Masquerade

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/mˌæskərˈeɪd/ Listen

noun

Masquerade n.

An assembly of persons wearing masks, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions. "In courtly balls and midnight masquerades."

A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask. See 1st Mask, 4. (Obs.)

Acting or living under false pretenses; concealment of something by a false or unreal show; pretentious show; disguise. "That masquerade of misrepresentation which invariably accompanied the political eloquence of Rome."

A Spanish diversion on horseback.

verb

Masquerade v. t. To conceal with masks; to disguise. "To masquerade vice."

Masquerade v. i. (past & past part. masqueraded; pres. part. masquerading)

To assemble in masks; to take part in a masquerade.

To frolic or disport in disquise; to make a pretentious show of being what one is not. "A freak took an ass in the head, and he goes into the woods, masquerading up and down in a lion's skin."

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Etymology of 'Masquerade'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Masquerade" Quotes from Famous Books

... the buffalo dance alone will furnish proof sufficient to you of the sense of symbolic significances in the redman that is unsurpassed. The redman is a genius in his gift of masquerade alone. He is a genius in detail, and in ensemble, and the producer of today might learn far more from him than he can be aware of except by visiting his unique performances. The redman's notion of the theatric does not depend upon artificial ...

— Adventures in the Arts - Informal Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville, and Poets • Marsden Hartley

... When a masquerade at Ranelagh was talked of, he said to Doctor Johnson, "I shall go as a Corsican." "What!" said the Doctor, with a sudden start. "As a Corsican," Dr. Goldsmith repeated mildly. "You don't mean to say," said the Doctor to him, gazing at him with solemn sternness, ...

— Pickwickian Manners and Customs • Percy Fitzgerald

... she was, lent herself to the fashion of the day, and delighted in practical jokes and tricks. At the splendid masquerade given by the queen she continued to plague her cousin, Lady Muskerry; to confuse and expose a stupid court beauty, a Miss Blaque; and at the same time to produce on the Count de Grammont a still more powerful effect than even her charms had done. Her ...

— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton

... Eve; "for such a man is scarcely worthy of even your resentment. He is too much your inferior in principles, manners, character, station, and everything else, to render him of so much account; and then, were we to clear up this masquerade into which the chances of a ship have thrown us, we might have our scruples concerning others, as well as concerning ...

— Homeward Bound - or, The Chase • James Fenimore Cooper

... his rough rider masquerade during the Spanish-American war was his first important step towards his goal, it gained for him the governorship of the Empire state and that important office made him an influential factor in the councils of the Republican ...

— The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt • Oliver Remey

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