camouflage
n.a way of hiding or blending in with your surroundings. Soldiers and animals use camouflage to avoid being seen.
n.the act of concealing or disguising something by matching its appearance to the surrounding environment; also, the materials or patterns used for this purpose.
“The soldier wore green camouflage.”
“The army uses digital camouflage patterns to help soldiers blend into forest environments.”
“The chameleon's ability to shift its skin color provides effective camouflage against predators in the dense jungle canopy.”
“This coating can act as a form of camouflage, making it harder for immune cells to recognize and destroy them.”
“Liu had taken his children along for the trip "as camouflage".”
Unadapted borrowing from French camouflage, from camoufler (“to veil, disguise”), alteration (due to camouflet (“smoke blown in one's face”)) of Italian camuffare (“to muffle the head”), from ca- (from Italian capo (“head”)) + muffare (“to muffle”), from Medieval Latin muffula, muffla (“muff”). This Medieval Latin, from which there is also English muffle, is either derived from a Frankish molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”)) + fell (“hide, skin”), from Proto-Germanic fellą (“skin, film, fleece”), or, an alternate etymology traces it to a Frankish muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) composed of mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) from Proto-Germanic mawwō (“sleeve”) + fell (“skin, hide”) from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.