cosplay

plural cosplays

1. uncountableThe art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character.

   Men, of course, also participate in cosplay and all its attending events, but women make up the greater numbers.

   2003, Jennifer Cahill, “The Cult of Kawaii”, in Cosplay Girls: Japan's Live Animation Heroines, Tokyo: Cocoro Books, →ISBN

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   Also the popularity can be seen in doujinshi and cosplay (costume play) and the popularity is not just junior high girls.

   1993 May 14, Hitoshi Doi, translating Animedia, “Animedia-February 1993 [all]”, in rec.arts.anime (Usenet), archived from the original on 30 Jul 2026

   [A]s the evening progresses all eyes turn to something called "cosplay," short for "costume play." A couple thousand Katsucon attendees sit in line for two hours to guarantee themselves a seat for cosplay, which turns out to be a bunch of skits performed by elaborately costumed anime and manga fans, who were herded into a greenroom and assigned numbers.

   2000 February 14, Hank Stuever, “What Would Godzilla Say?”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2017

   The environments and spaces created for and by cosplay provide cosplayers with a variety of spaces for social interactions.

   2006 December 22, Theresa Winge, “Costuming the Imagination: Origins of Anime and Manga Cosplay”, in Frenchy Lunning, editor, Mechademia 1: Emerging Worlds of Anime And Manga, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 75

   Coslay involves dressing up as a fictional character or at least as a person who exists in a fictional world. Conventions and cosplay were certainly not unknown to western science fiction and comic book fans who referred to them as "cons" and "masquerades" respectively. It didn't take long for anime cons and cosplay to become a part of popular culture fandom in the West or for the traditions to become intertwined.

   2010, Antonia Levi, “Introduction”, in Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, editors, Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 5

   No sane person intends to go down a path where Saturdays are spent changing from jeans to a Dothraki pelt-skin costume in the back of a Ford Focus in a Milton Keynes conference centre car-park before meeting their friend Nige (him of the egg-box dragon costume and blow-torch mouth o' fire effect) but cosplay has to start somewhere.

   2012 June 2, Grace Dent, “Grace Dent on TV: Game of Thrones, Sky Atlantic”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Jun 2012

2. countableA skit or instance of this art or practice.

   Popular cosplays include, for example, characters from the Final Fantasy range of games, […]

   2012, Ramon Lobato, Thomas Julian, Dan Hunter, “Histories of user-generated content […]”, in Dan Hunter, Ramon Lobato, Megan Richardson, Julian Thomas, editors, Amateur Media: Social, Cultural and Legal Perspectives, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part I (Economic histories), note 15

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   Central to the activity of cosplay is elaborate costuming, though some cosplays are enacted using a game system.

   2010, Sarah Lynne Bowman, “Historical Evolution and Cultural Permutations”, in The Functions of Role-Playing Games […], Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 29

   According to a student from France who went to Japan to study Japanese, "Universities in France are like Halloween when otaku students engage in these cosplays. They take Japanese language because of anime, but they see after a few classes that it's hard and not fun. Many drop out" (author interview, 2009).

   2010, Anne M. Cooper-Chen, Cartoon Cultures: The Globalization of Japanese Popular Media, New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang, page 121

present singular third person cosplays · participle present cosplaying · participle past cosplayed · past cosplayed

1. intransitiveTo costume oneself as a (usually fictional) character.

   She cosplayed at the manga convention.

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   One wears a Mysterious Figure cloak. Another is trying his best to cosplay as Steve, and is wearing a wig that keeps on threatening to slide backwards off his head, and is being held in place by a piece of string under the bottom of the head that's a bit too long.

   1999 February 23, Steven Scougall, “[GRIT] Lord Have Mercy...”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet), archived from the original on 30 Jul 2026

   Senior politicians have cosplayed as train drivers, ambulance workers, Border Force officials – the list goes on.

   2022 December 23, Marina Hyde, “Who can doubt the futuristic brilliance of [Rishi] Sunak and co? They’ve given us driverless government”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Dec 2022

2. transitiveTo costume oneself as (a [usually fictional] character).

   She cosplayed Sailor Moon at the manga convention.

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   The most bizarre sketch involved Widja Santoso in a rioutous Monthy Python-esque^([sic]) message on the proper way to cosplay... C-ko.

   1993 July 10, E. Kontei, “Con Report: ANIME EXPO”, in rec.arts.anime (Usenet), archived from the original on 30 Jul 2026

   [Law] Asuncion, who has glaucoma, a vision disorder, has been attending the gathering since 2006, the first year of the show. He has often cosplayed a version of Cyclops, a leader of the X-Men, who has his own eyesight issues.

   2024 October 18, George Gene Gustines, “At Comic Con, Emergency Tailors Keep Cosplayers in Character”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Nov 2024

3. derogatoryfigurativelyintransitiveoftenTo adopt the behavior and mannerisms of another; to pretend to be someone or something.

   “He’s cosplaying as a goober,” one local [Mike Holcomb] memorably put it on Twitter.

   2018 July 15, Richard Fausset, “Georgia Governor Candidate [Casey Cagle] Caught Saying He’s in Race to Be the ‘Craziest’”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Jul 2018

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   Whilst their stability was generally an improvement on earlier German destroyers, as the vessels no longer displayed a strong desire to cosplay as U-boats, the main armament proved to be something of a problem.

   2022 August 27, Drachinifel, 2:44 from the start, in Type 1936A / Narvik class - Guide 298, via YouTube, archived from the original on 29 Aug 2022

   On weekends, there was usually a party. Her classmates, free from their wealthy families, cosplayed as struggling intellectuals.

   2022 September 13, Ling Ma, “Office Hours”, in Bliss Montage, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN

   Nigel Farage is a “political fraud and hypocrite” who is “cosplaying” as a working-class champion in order to win votes at this week’s local elections, the UK’s most senior union chief [Paul Nowak] has warned.

   2025 April 27, Pippa Crerar, “Nigel Farage is a political fraud ‘cosplaying’ as working-class champion, TUC chief says”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2025

4. derogatoryfigurativelyoftentransitiveTo adopt the behavior and mannerisms of (another); to pretend to be (someone or something).

   […] turning conservative white men into amateur commandos cosplaying war wherever they liked and the US into a war zone.

   2022 May 30, Rebecca Solnit, “US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 May 2022

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   Why has the Russian Federation decided to cosplay the Nazi Third Reich by attacking the peaceful neighboring state and plunging the region into war?

   2022 March 17, Michael Luciano, quoting Sergiy Kyslytsya, “‘The Russian Federation Has Decided to Cosplay the Nazi Third Reich’: Ukraine’s Ambassador Blasts Russian Counterpart to His Face”, in Aidan McLaughlin, editor, Mediaite, New York, N.Y.: Abrams Media, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 Mar 2022