An outward display of a quality, emotion, etc., which conceals or does not truly reflect a person's real character, feelings, motives, etc.; a…

The action of making (something, someone, etc.) up (see to make up at make, v.1 phrasal verbs 1); completion; compounding, composition…

figurative. Brilliance, radiance, splendour, lustre. †Also, a specious appearance, a ‘show’.

Outward show; artificial or assumed expression or appearance; pretence. Also: an instance of this, a disguise, a pretence; (formerly also) †a…

figurative. A specious gloss or outward show; a pretence.

copy of one's countenance: a mere outward show or sign of what one would do or be; hence, pretence. Obsolete.

One who or that which is false. Something that is false; untruth; false appearance. Obsolete exc. archaic.

British colloquial. Something which serves to disappoint the hopes of beggars. Chiefly attributive and in the genitive: designating a house that…

Mimicry, imitation; a deceptive or counterfeit representation of something. Now usually depreciative: an outrageous or ludicrous simulation; a…

A pretext or pretence; a colour or false show. Obsolete.

A mere image, a specious imitation or likeness, of something.

the period of comparative inaction at the beginning of the Second World War between the German invasion of Poland (September 1939) and that of…