disguise
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English disgisen, disguisen, borrowed from Old French desguiser (modern French déguiser), itself derived from des- (“dis-”) (from Latin dis-) + guise (“guise”) (from a Germanic source).
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /dɪsˈɡaɪz/, /dɪzˈɡaɪz/
- (General American) IPA(key): /dɪsˈɡaɪz/, /dɪˈskaɪz/
Audio (US): (file) - Hyphenation: dis‧guise
- Rhymes: -aɪz
Noun
editdisguise (countable and uncountable, plural disguises)
- Material (such as clothing, makeup, a wig) used to alter one’s visual appearance in order to hide one's identity or assume another.
- A cape and moustache completed his disguise.
- (figuratively) The appearance of something on the outside which masks what’s beneath.
- The act or state of disguising, notably as a ploy.
- Any disguise may expose soldiers to be deemed enemy spies.
- (archaic) A change of behaviour resulting from intoxication, drunkenness.
Synonyms
editDerived terms
editTranslations
editattire to hide/assume an identity
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that which masks what's beneath
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act of disguising
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
editdisguise (third-person singular simple present disguises, present participle disguising, simple past and past participle disguised)
- (transitive) To change the appearance of (a person or thing) so as to hide, or to assume an identity.
- Spies often disguise themselves.
- 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica[1]:
- Bunyan was forced to disguise himself as a wagoner.
- (transitive, obsolete) To transform or disfigure, to change the appearance of in general.
- (transitive) To avoid giving away or revealing (something secret); to hide by a false appearance.
- He disguised his true intentions.
- (transitive, obsolete) To dress in newfangled or showy clothing, to deck out in new fashions.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To dissemble, to talk or act falsely while concealing one’s thoughts.
- (transitive, archaic) To affect or change by liquor; to intoxicate.
- 1714 November 16 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “FRIDAY, November 5, 1714”, in The Spectator, number 616; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume VI, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
- I have just left the right worshipful, and his myrmidons, about a sneaker or five gallons; the whole magistracy was pretty well disguised before I gave them the slip.
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
- But my lord was angry, and being disguised with liquor too, he would not let him go till they played more; and play they did, and the luck still went the same way; […]
Synonyms
editDerived terms
editTranslations
editto change the appearance
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to prevent revealing something secret
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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- English terms derived from Latin
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