Illusion

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Illusion \Il*lu"sion\, n. [F. illusion, L. illusio, fr.
     illudere, illusum, to illude. See {Illude}.]
     1. An unreal image presented to the bodily or mental vision;
        a deceptive appearance; a false show; mockery;
        hallucination.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              To cheat the eye with blear illusions. --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Hence: Anything agreeably fascinating and charming;
        enchantment; witchery; glamour.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise! --Pope.
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     3. (Physiol.) A sensation originated by some external object,
        but so modified as in any way to lead to an erroneous
        perception; as when the rolling of a wagon is mistaken for
        thunder.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Some modern writers distinguish between an illusion and
           hallucination, regarding the former as originating with
           some external object, and the latter as having no
           objective occasion whatever.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     4. A plain, delicate lace, usually of silk, used for veils,
        scarfs, dresses, etc.
  
     Syn: Delusion; mockery; deception; chimera; fallacy. See
          {Delusion}. {Illusion}, {Delusion}. Illusion refers
          particularly to errors of the sense; delusion to false
          hopes or deceptions of the mind. An optical deception is
          an illusion; a false opinion is a delusion. --E.
          Edwards.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  illusion
       n 1: an erroneous mental representation [syn: {semblance}]
       2: something many people believe that is false; "they have the
          illusion that I am very wealthy" [syn: {fantasy}, {phantasy},
           {fancy}]
       3: the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas
          [syn: {delusion}, {head game}]
       4: an illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers
          [syn: {magic trick}, {conjuring trick}, {trick}, {magic},
          {legerdemain}, {conjuration}, {deception}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  138 Moby Thesaurus words for "illusion":
     aberrancy, aberration, air, airy nothing, apparition, appearance,
     bamboozlement, bedevilment, befooling, bewitchery, bewitchment,
     bluffing, brainchild, bubble, calculated deception, captivation,
     chimera, circumvention, conning, deceiving, deception,
     deceptiveness, defectiveness, defrauding, delirium, delusion,
     delusiveness, deviancy, distortion, dream, dupery, eidolon,
     enchantment, enmeshment, ensnarement, entanglement, entrancement,
     entrapment, errancy, erroneousness, error, ether, fallaciousness,
     fallacy, falseness, falsity, fancy, fantasque, fantasy,
     fascination, fault, faultiness, fiction, figment, flaw, flawedness,
     flimflam, flimflammery, fond illusion, fooling, hallucination,
     hamartia, heresy, heterodoxy, hoodwinking, idle fancy,
     ignis fatuus, imagery, imagination, imagining, insubstantial image,
     invention, kidding, maggot, make-believe, maya, mirage,
     misapplication, misapprehension, misconception, misconstruction,
     misdoing, misfeasance, misinterpretation, misjudgment, mist,
     mistake, myth, obsession, outwitting, overreaching, peccancy,
     perversion, phantasm, phantasmagoria, phantom, pipe, pipe dream,
     possession, putting on, rainbow, romance, seeming,
     self-contradiction, self-deception, semblance, shadow, sick fancy,
     sin, sinfulness, smoke, snow job, song and dance, spirit, spoofery,
     spoofing, subterfuge, swindling, thick-coming fancies, thin air,
     trickiness, tricking, trip, unorthodoxy, untrueness, untruth,
     untruthfulness, vapor, victimization, vision, whim, whimsy,
     wildest dreams, willful misconception, wishful thinking, witchery,
     wrong, wrongness