make-believe

[ meyk-bi-leev ]
See synonyms for make-believe on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. pretense, especially of an innocent or playful kind; playacting; fantasy: the make-believe of children playing.

  2. a pretender; a person who pretends.

adjective
  1. pretended; feigned; imaginary; made-up; unreal: a make-believe world of fantasy.

Origin of make-believe

1
First recorded in 1805–15

Words Nearby make-believe

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use make-believe in a sentence

  • Never mind the dust; I've turned it on to make believe we're going tremendously fast.

    Davy and The Goblin | Charles E. Carryl
  • He left about a hundred of us here to make believe we 'uns ware goin' to attack Paris, so to give him time to git away.

  • They would pick them up and hold them in their hands and would then make believe they were Cave-men trapping reindeer in the snow.

    The Later Cave-Men | Katharine Elizabeth Dopp
  • Then the larger reindeer that had lost their antlers started off to make-believe higher lands.

    The Later Cave-Men | Katharine Elizabeth Dopp
  • Already poor Richard was very humble, his make-believe spirit all snuffed out.

    Mistress Wilding | Rafael Sabatini

British Dictionary definitions for make believe

make believe

verb
  1. to pretend or enact a fantasy: the children made believe they were doctors

nounmake-believe
    • a fantasy, pretence, or unreality

    • (as modifier): a make-believe world

  1. a person who pretends

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with make-believe

make-believe

Pretend, as in Let's make believe we're elves. This expression in effect means making oneself believe in an illusion. [Early 1700s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.