| 释义 |
ˈmake-beˌlieve
[The phr. make believe (see make v.1 53 e) used subst. (Cf. facrere.)]
1. Pretence.
1811L. M. Hawkins C'tess & Gertr. (1812) IV. 62, I was drest like Minerva,..and then the little ones came and worshipped me: 'twas all make-believe, you see. 1811Morn. Chron. 9 Apr., Her mourning is all make-believe, She's gay as any linnet. 1818Lamb Three Friends, Not that she did really grieve It was only make-believe. 1855H. Rogers Ess. (1874) II. vii. 331 This great empire is rotten..ceremony, etiquette, conventionality, insincerity,—‘make believe’, in short,— constitute it. 1888Times 23 June 17/2 The public does not object to magic in small quantities. It is quite ready to join in the game of ‘make-believe’.
b. in particularized sense.
1825Coleridge Aids Refl. (1848) I. 56 [To practise praying] as a species of animal-magnetism to be brought about by..a temporary make-believe on the part of the self-magnetizer! 1862Sala Accepted Addr. 191 The world is full of make-believes. 1887Jessopp Arcady viii. 234 That old-fashioned place of resort..the village green, has become a mere make-believe now.
2. One who makes believe or pretends.
1863S. Wilberforce Sp. Missions (1874) 2 Do not be an idler and make-believe in the work. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xv. 171 The ordinary make-believes of society, saying little civil speeches and not going beyond them.
3. attrib. passing into adj. Of the nature of make-believe.
1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. 248 That was a make-believe thing, compared with this. 1852Gladstone Glean. IV. xlii. 96 Here again I am met with a make-believe reply. 1877T. A. Trollope Life Pius IX, II. iii. iii. 3 The republicans and their make-believe government. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 138 The hour's talk and make-believe school.
So make-believer, -believing [f. phrase make believe].
1884N. Amer. Rev. CXXXVIII. 443 A volume which believers, unbelievers, misbelievers, and make-believers would unite in neglecting or condemning. 1899B. Harraden Fowler 125 Children..not tiring easily of their many make-believings. 1907G. B. Shaw Major Barbara Pref. 149 The romantic make-believer lay outside the pale of sympathy in literature. 1909Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Mar. 105/2 A little make-believing girl, not unlike..the make-believing child of the ‘Child's Garden of Verses’. 1954T. S. Eliot Confid. Clerk 1. 40 It begins as a kind of make-believe And the make-believing makes it real. 1957L. MacNeice Visitations 17 Coral islands of first love Where makebelieving boy and girl Assume the music of the spheres. |