masquerade as

masquerade as (someone or something)

1. Literally, to disguise oneself as someone or something; to dress in apparel meant to look like someone or something else. I love seeing all the kids on Halloween masquerading as ghouls, goblins, and cartoon characters.
2. To pretend to be someone or something that one is not; to posture as someone or something. It's clear now that the candidate has just been masquerading as a common, working-class citizen to gain more votes across the county. She masqueraded as a legitimate journalist before it was discovered that she had plagiarized most of her work.
See also: masquerade
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

masquerade as someone or something

to appear disguised as someone or something; to pretend to be someone or something. We decided to masquerade as ghosts for the party. Mr. Wilson, who is a bit overweight, masqueraded as Cinderella's coach.
See also: masquerade
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • be/have done with somebody/something
  • be in line with (someone or something)
  • be rough on (someone or something)
  • better of
  • (someone or something) promises well
  • begin with
  • begin with (someone or something)
  • bird has flown, the
  • beware of
  • beware of (someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
Just as these characters' disguises further the fictional cause of social justice by enabling novelistic encounters that would not have been possible sans mask, she suggests, writers' masquerade as characters may "aid in the creation of reader empathy" (189).
Weldt-Basson, Helen Carol. Masquerade and Social Justice in Contemporary Latin American Fiction
The author examines masquerade as a motif related to the theme of social justice in 14 contemporary novels by Latin American authors Mario Vargas Llosa, Sergio Galindo, Augusto Roa Bastos, Fernando del Paso, Mayra Santos-Febres, Isabel Allende, Carmen Boullosa, Antonio Benitez-Rojo, Marcela Serrano, Sara Sefchovich, Luisa Valenzuela, and Ariel Dorfman.
Masquerade and Social Justice in Contemporary Latin American Fiction
In her introduction, Bell draws a distinction between "traditional masquerade" and masquerade as we now experience it.
Masquerade: Essays on Tradition and Innovation Worldwide edited by Deborah Bell
Grant refers to his own masquerade as a charade in Charade.
Touch of Pink: a Canadian cross-cultural comedy
Elizabeth Atkins is the author of Dark Secret (Forge, July 2000), a sexy thriller about a biracial woman whose high-stakes masquerade as a glamorous white woman costs her black mother's life.
Passing: When People Can't Be Who They Are
Burton's analysis of possession cult and carnival demonstrates that the two ritual practices share masquerade as a common feature or, more generally, the "ludic, theatrical, or agonic character of both." One is reminded here of Marcel Camus's award-winning film Black Orpheus (1958), based upon Vinicius de Moraea's play Orfeu da Conceicao, which also connects spirit-possession and carnival among the descendants of African slaves in modem-day Rio de Janeiro.
Masquerade, magic, and carnival in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
To his credit, Robinson realizes the corrosive effects of his masquerade as well as the manner in which the attitudes of his discipline are, finally, obstacles to his own self-actualization.
By the Light of My Father's Smile