From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmasquerademas‧que‧rade1 /ˌmæskəˈreɪd/ noun 1 [countable]DLDCC a formal dance or party where people wear masks and unusual clothes2 [countable, uncountable]HIDE/NOT SHOW a way of behaving or speaking that hides your true thoughts or feelings SYN pretence She didn’t really love him, but she kept up the masquerade for the children’s sake.
Examples from the Corpus
masquerade• Time trapped one in a masquerade with costumes of its own choice.• a masquerade ball• Dressing up, role playing and masquerade form the conceptual basis of Kahlo's work.• And this can not be achieved by enacting and responding to any general masquerade of fixed roles.• Am I not your mistress in masquerade ... Trader?• Most attempts of this sort were charades, performances in masquerade.• Similarly, the puerile masquerade of seventies non-swearing was worth watching because it was deliciously nonsensical.masquerademasquerade2 verb [intransitive] PRETENDto pretend to be something or someone differentmasquerade as A number of police officers masqueraded as demonstrators. Some of these breakfast foods are just candy masquerading as cereals.masquerade under He was masquerading under a false name.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
masquerade• Maybe writer / director Michael Mann thought he was creating an existential male menopause movie masquerading as a cops-and-robbers drama.• John F.. Kerry Wednesday described the governor as an enemy of higher education masquerading as an election-year friend.• They often masqueraded as potential customers in order to get information.• The play is more an act of self-immolation masquerading as rational justification.• No reality, he wrote, only images masquerading as reality, only dreams masquerading as the real world.• Certainly censorship should not be allowed to masquerade as virtuous compromise, but nor should commitment to free speech go unexamined.masquerade as• A journalist masquerading as a businessman approached the politicians, and offered them bribes.• An FBI agent masqueraded as a member of the Mafia.• He got into the stadium masquerading as a security guard.• Some of these breakfast foods are really candy masquerading as cereal.Origin masquerade1 (1500-1600) French Old Italian mascarada, from maschera; → MASK1 