make believe

See also: makebelieve and make-believe

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

make believe (third-person singular simple present makes believe, present participle making believe, simple past and past participle made believe)

1. (idiomatic, childish) To pretend or imagine.

   Let's make believe that we are explorers.

   • 1927, Oscar Hammerstein II, Show Boat:

     Only make believe I love you, / Only make believe that you love me. / Others find peace of mind in pretending, / Couldn’t you? / Couldn’t I? / Couldn’t we? / Make believe our lips are blending / In a phantom kiss, or two, or three. / Might as well make believe I love you, / For to tell the truth I do.

Translations

to pretend

• Bulgarian: преструвам се (prestruvam se)
• Catalan: fer veure
• French: imaginer (fr)
• German: so tun, als ob (de)
• Kabuverdianu: finji
• Maori: whakangaio, whakatakune
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: late som, late som om

• Portuguese: fazer de conta (pt)
• Spanish: hacer de cuenta (es)

Noun

make believe (countable and uncountable, plural make believes)

1. Alternative form of make-believe.

Adjective

make believe (comparative more make believe, superlative most make believe)

1. imaginary; conjured in someone's imagination, especially that of a child