make-believe
/ˈmeɪk bəˌliːv/ noun, adjective
Forms make-believes makebelieve make believe
- noun (uncountable) The quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not.
- noun (uncountable) The condition of pretending or imagining that things are better than they really are.
- noun (countable) Something imaginary.
- adjective Imaginary; not real; pretend. “He called himself Lord So-and-So, even had his family crest on the wall, but it was all totally make-believe.”
Synonyms
Etymology
Deverbal from make believe.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “make-believe”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details