disguise

plural disguises

1. countableuncountableMaterial (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.

   1 more example

   hiding one's treacherous intentions under the guise of friendship

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableThe appearance of something on the outside which masks what’s beneath.

   old ideas in a new guise

3. countableuncountableThe act or state of disguising, notably as a ploy.

   Any disguise may expose soldiers to be deemed enemy spies.

4. archaiccountableuncountableA change of behaviour resulting from intoxication, drunkenness.

present singular third person disguises · participle present disguising · participle past disguised · past disguised

1. transitiveTo change the appearance of (a person or thing) so as to hide, or to assume an identity.

   Spies often disguise themselves.

   2 more examples

   Bunyan was forced to disguise himself as a wagoner.

   1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

   The official Central News agency said a Nationalist patrol boat Dec. 28 captured six Communist spies disguised as fishermen as they approached within 1,000 yards of the Paichuan in a motorized fishing craft. They were taken to Matsu for questioning.

   1955 December 31, “Chiang Says Time Near For Mainland Uprising”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Atlantic edition, volume 48, number 31, Boston, sourced from Associated Press, Taipei, Formosa, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 5

   Synonyms: masquerade

2. obsoletetransitiveTo transform or disfigure, to change the appearance of in general.
3. transitiveTo avoid giving away or revealing (something secret); to hide by a false appearance.

   He disguised his true intentions.

4. obsoletetransitiveTo dress in newfangled or showy clothing, to deck out in new fashions.
5. intransitiveobsoleteTo dissemble, to talk or act falsely while concealing one’s thoughts.
6. archaictransitiveTo affect or change by liquor; to intoxicate.

   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.

   1714 November 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “THURSDAY, 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

   1 more example

   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; […]

   1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard