A mirage is something which you see when it is extremely hot, for example in the desert, and which appears to be quite near but is actually a long way away or does not really exist.
Through my half-closed eyelids I began to see mirages.
It hovered before his eyes like the mirage of an oasis. [+ of]
Synonyms: illusion, vision, hallucination, pipe dream More Synonyms of mirage
2. countable noun [usually singular]
If you describe something as a mirage, you mean that it is not real or true, although it may seem to be.
The girl was a mirage, cast up by his troubled mind.
The objectivity of science is a mirage.
mirage in British English
(mɪˈrɑːʒ)
noun
1.
an image of a distant object or sheet of water, often inverted or distorted, caused by atmospheric refraction by hot air
2.
something illusory
Word origin
C19: from French, from (se) mirer to be reflected
mirage in American English
(mɪˈrɑʒ)
noun
1.
an optical illusion in which the image of a distant object, as a ship or an oasis, is made to appear nearby, floating in air, inverted, etc.: it is caused by the refraction of light rays from the object through layers of air having different densities as the result of unequal temperature distributions
2.
something that falsely appears to be real
SIMILAR WORDS: deˈlusion
Word origin
Fr < (se) mirer, to be reflected < VL mirare, to look at, for L mirari: see miracle
Examples of 'mirage' in a sentence
mirage
Only time and again it proves a mirage.
The Sun (2015)
It is more desert mirage than dream destination at present.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
By that time for layers it was a mirage in the desert.
The Sun (2011)
But it turned out to be just another mirage.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Opportunities were scarce and winners were a distant mirage.
Frankie Dettori with Jonathan Powell FRANKIE: The Autobiography of Frankie Dettori (2004)
That turns out to have been a Western mirage in the desert.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
In the desert, mirage takes many forms.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
A desert island mirage dreaming of a drug store selling discount stamps?
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
It proved a cruel mirage, for them and for Arsenal.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
England caught glimpses of victory in Abu Dhabi like a mirage in the desert.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
And, after so many false hopes, might this be just another mirage?