MASQUERADE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does masquerade mean? 

• MASQUERADE (noun)
  The noun MASQUERADE has 3 senses:

1. a party of guests wearing costumes and masks

2. a costume worn as a disguise at a masquerade party

3. making a false outward show

  Familiarity information: MASQUERADE used as a noun is uncommon.

• MASQUERADE (verb)
  The verb MASQUERADE has 2 senses:

1. take part in a masquerade

2. pretend to be someone or something that you are not

  Familiarity information: MASQUERADE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MASQUERADE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A party of guests wearing costumes and masks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

mask; masque; masquerade; masquerade party

Hypernyms ("masquerade" is a kind of...):

party (a group of people gathered together for pleasure)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "masquerade"):

fancy-dress ball; masked ball; masquerade ball (a ball at which guests wear costumes and masks)

Derivation:

masquerade (take part in a masquerade)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A costume worn as a disguise at a masquerade party

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

fancy dress; masquerade; masquerade costume

Hypernyms ("masquerade" is a kind of...):

costume (the attire worn in a play or at a fancy dress ball)

disguise (any attire that modifies the appearance in order to conceal the wearer's identity)

Meronyms (parts of "masquerade"):

domino (a loose hooded cloak worn with a half mask as part of a masquerade costume)

false face (a mask worn as part of a masquerade costume)

Derivation:

masquerade (take part in a masquerade)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Making a false outward show

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

charade; masquerade

Context example:

a beggar's masquerade of wealth

Hypernyms ("masquerade" is a kind of...):

feigning; pretence; pretending; pretense; simulation (the act of giving a false appearance)

Derivation:

masquerade (pretend to be someone or something that you are not)

• MASQUERADE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they masquerade    ... he / she / it masquerades   
Past simple: masqueraded   
Past participle: masqueraded   
-ing form: masquerading   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take part in a masquerade

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "masquerade" is one way to...):

disguise; mask (make unrecognizable)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

masquerade (a costume worn as a disguise at a masquerade party)

masquerade (a party of guests wearing costumes and masks)

masquerader (a participant in a masquerade)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pretend to be someone or something that you are not

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

This silly novel is masquerading as a serious historical treaty

Hypernyms (to "masquerade" is one way to...):

impersonate; personate; pose (pretend to be someone you are not; sometimes with fraudulent intentions)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

masquerade (making a false outward show)

 Context examples 

The masquerade would fail, and besides, masquerade was foreign to his nature.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The first two, I need hardly remark, are the same who masqueraded as the Russian count and his son, so we can give a very full description of them.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The animal itself was as peaceful and well-behaved as that father of all picture-wolves—Red Riding Hood's quondam friend, whilst moving her confidence in masquerade.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

They got up a masquerade, and had a gay time New Year's Eve.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Something of masquerade I suspected.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Yet what assurance have we, said the prince, that this is not some varlet masquerading in his master's harness, or some caitiff knight, the very touch of whose lance might bring infamy upon an honorable gentleman?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He tried to make us act plays and to enter into masquerades, in which the characters were drawn from the heroes of Roncesvalles, of the Round Table of King Arthur, and the chivalrous train who shed their blood to redeem the holy sepulchre from the hands of the infidels.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

This little bit of byplay excited Annie's curiosity, but Meg was too tired for gossip and went to bed, feeling as if she had been to a masquerade and hadn't enjoyed herself as much as she expected.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

As for me, I am an inveterate opponent of socialism just as I am an inveterate opponent of your own mongrel democracy that is nothing else than pseudo- socialism masquerading under a garb of words that will not stand the test of the dictionary.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She had her doubts about it from the beginning, for her lively fancy and girlish romance felt as ill at ease in the new style as she would have done masquerading in the stiff and cumbrous costume of the last century.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)