Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - make-believe

1. If someone is living in a make-believe world, they are pretending that things are better, different, or more exciting than they really are instead of facing up to reality. ...the glamorous make-believe world of show business... N-UNCOUNT c darkgreen]disapproval 2. You use make-believe to refer to the activity involved when a child plays a game in which they pretend something, for example that they are someone else. She used to play games of make-believe with her elder sister. ...his make-believe playmate. N-UNCOUNT 3. You use make-believe to describe things, for example in a play or film, that imitate or copy something real, but which are not what they appear to be. The violence in those films was too unreal, it was make-believe... ADJ