mirage
Americannoun
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an optical phenomenon, especially in the desert or at sea, by which the image of some object appears displaced above, below, or to one side of its true position as a result of spatial variations of the index of refraction of air.
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something illusory, without substance or reality.
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Military. Mirage, any of a series of supersonic, delta-wing, multirole French fighter-bombers.
noun
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an image of a distant object or sheet of water, often inverted or distorted, caused by atmospheric refraction by hot air
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something illusory
Etymology
Origin of mirage
First recorded in 1795–1805; from French, equivalent to (se) mir(er) “to look at (oneself), be reflected” (from Latin mīrārī “to wonder at”) + -age -age
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When you’re depleted after a couple of days of hard running, seeing something that may indicate your suffering is over is almost like seeing a mirage.
But when there’s a glitch, this mirage breaks.
The Hims & Hers strategy of undercutting patented drugs arguably went too far and always seemed like a mirage, as far as strategy goes.
The results of the hunt were so disappointing that in 1922 an American geologist dismissed the country’s petroleum prospects as a “mirage.”
Even if Leman isn’t our grandmother, she is, by the end, our grand mirage.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
