mirage

plural mirages

1. An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, often giving the illusion of a body of water.
2. figurativelyAn illusion.

   1 more example

   I remember hearing, that in the East the clear and azure waters seem to flow before the weary and parched traveller; yet a little further, and on he urges his weary way, but in vain—the fair stream is a delusion. Even thus happiness is the mirage which leads us over the desert of life, ever fated to end in deceit and disappointment.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 68

present singular third person mirages · participle present miraging · participle past miraged · past miraged

1. transitiveTo cause to appear as or like a mirage.

   The vision of a salon was miraged before her, with herself in the middle deftly manipulating the destinies of a nation.

   1901, A. E. W. Mason, Ensign Knightley and Other Stories

   1 more example

   All that had been in his mind seemed suddenly miraged before him—the removal of Hunterleys, his own wife's failing health.

   1915, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo