ENGLISH
REFERENCE

make believe

idiom
Meaning

To pretend or imagine.


Examples
SIMPLE

The children like to make believe they are pirates.

CONTEXTUAL

During the long flight, the toddler used his toy plane to make believe he was flying across the ocean.

COMPLEX

The lonely writer would often make believe that his fictional characters were real people sitting across from him at the dinner table.

Anchors to
Related idioms8entries
  1. 01

    Adam and Eve

    [Cockney slang]believe

  2. 02

    believe it or not

    This may be surprising, but it's true.

  3. 03

    believe one's ears

    To believe that something which one hears is truly the case.

  4. 04

    believe one's eyes

    To believe that something which one directly sees is truly the case.

  5. 05

    believe you me

    An emphatic form of believe me: you (the subject) had better believe me (the speaker).

  6. 06

    cannot make it

    Cannot reach satisfactory or expected standards or do something competently; describes someone in a hopeless situation.

  7. 07

    doctors make the worst patients

    It is difficult to advise people on subjects that they are experts on.

  8. 08

    enough to make a cat laugh

    Very outlandish or outrageous.

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