CHARADE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does charade mean? 

• CHARADE (noun)
  The noun CHARADE has 2 senses:

1. a word acted out in an episode of the game of charades

2. making a false outward show

  Familiarity information: CHARADE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHARADE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A word acted out in an episode of the game of charades

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("charade" is a kind of...):

word (a unit of language that native speakers can identify)

Holonyms ("charade" is a part of...):

charades (guessing game in which one player pantomimes a word or phrase for others to guess)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Making a false outward show

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

charade; masquerade

Context example:

a beggar's masquerade of wealth

Hypernyms ("charade" is a kind of...):

feigning; pretence; pretending; pretense; simulation (the act of giving a false appearance)

 Context examples 

It is such a pretty charade, my dear, that I can easily guess what fairy brought it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"Bridewell!" exclaimed Colonel Dent, and the charade was solved.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A piece of paper was found on the table this morning—(dropt, we suppose, by a fairy)—containing a very pretty charade, and we have just copied it in.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

What charade Colonel Dent and his party played, what word they chose, how they acquitted themselves, I no longer remember; but I still see the consultation which followed each scene: I see Mr. Rochester turn to Miss Ingram, and Miss Ingram to him; I see her incline her head towards him, till the jetty curls almost touch his shoulder and wave against his cheek; I hear their mutual whisperings; I recall their interchanged glances; and something even of the feeling roused by the spectacle returns in memory at this moment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He has encouragement enough to proceed, without our sighing out our souls over this charade.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Later in the morning, and just as the girls were going to separate in preparation for the regular four o'clock dinner, the hero of this inimitable charade walked in again.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

With the view of passing off an awkward moment, Emma smilingly said, You must make my apologies to your friend; but so good a charade must not be confined to one or two.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

To be sure, the charade, with its “ready wit”—but then the “soft eyes”—in fact it suited neither; it was a jumble without taste or truth.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

How eager he had been about the picture!—and the charade!—and an hundred other circumstances;—how clearly they had seemed to point at Harriet.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

My dear Harriet, you must not refine too much upon this charade.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)