Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Outward appearance or aspect; semblance.
- n. False appearance; pretense: spoke to me under the guise of friendship.
- n. Mode of dress; garb: huddled on the street in the guise of beggars.
- n. Obsolete Custom; habit.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Way; manner; mode; fashion; practice; custom.
- n. Manner of acting; mien; cast or behavior.
- n. External appearance as determined by costume; dress; garb: as, the guise of a shepherd.
- n. Hence Appearance or semblance in general; aspect or seeming.
- To dress as a guiser; assume or act the part of a guiser.
- To place a guise or garb on; dress.
Wiktionary
- n. Customary way of speaking or acting; fashion, manner, practice (often used formerly in such phrases as "at his own guise"; that is, in his own fashion, to suit himself.)
- n. External appearance in manner or dress; appropriate indication or expression; garb; shape.
- n. Misleading appearance; cover, cloak
- n. Internet slang guys.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Customary way of speaking or acting; custom; fashion; manner; behavior; mien; mode; practice; -- often used formerly in such phrases as: .
- n. External appearance in manner or dress; appropriate indication or expression; garb; shape.
- n. Cover; cloak.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an artful or simulated semblance
Etymologies
- From Middle English guise, gise, gyse, from Old French guisse, guise, vise ("guise, manner, way"), from Old Frankish *wīsa (“manner, way, fashion”), from Proto-Germanic *wīsōn, *manner, way, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, view, behold, perceive”). Cognate with Old High German wīsa ("way, manner"), Old English wīse ("wise, way, fashion, custom, habit, manner"). More at wise. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, manner, fashion, from Old French, of Germanic origin; see weid- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We don't care that tax cuts for the wealthy are provided under the thin guise of "stimulating the economy" unless we are rich.”
The Huffington Post: Howard Steven Friedman: The United States of Apathy's Motto is We Don't Care
“Mr. SUMARUCK has intentionally said things, or caused things to be printed, which leave the absolutely FALSE impression that he was a highly-trained combat warrior (under whichever unit acronym or guise is currently at the top of his list).”
“The whole "law and order" guise is just his schtick – this guy is nothing but a politician who would be a dictator if he thought he could get away with it.”
“I notice if you do a search for “hooker,” more negative videos comes up under the thin guise of “comedy.””
“NO on 2 (would introduce homophobic language into state constitution in guise of ‘marriage protection’)”
“Wrapping rhetoric about abortion, to use an explicit example, up in feminist guise is not one of those things.”
Only Feminists Could Murder Their Progressive Allies Like This « Unambiguously Ambidextrous
“Century refinement; innocence of the word not of the thought; morality of the tongue not of the heart, and the sincere homage paid to virtue in guise of perfect hypocrisy.”
“Here, he adopts the thin guise of a reviewer who is not Walt Whitman, and lays out the differences between”
“Today, inequality continues to rear its ugly head, in guise of religious intolerance, racism, homophobia, class division and so on.”
“This urban camouflage guise is very useful for parking in yellow zones, urban/industrial exploration, and crime deterrence.”
Boing Boing: September 21, 2003 - September 27, 2003 Archives
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘guise’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 165 more...
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October 2011
serendipity, grateful, irritable, punchy, twitchy, reverence, solitude, levity, nubble, sojourn, Eden, quesadilla and 19 more...
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November Words-11337
fiscal, assuage, prolix, shroud, laconic, paucity, mollify, nascent, burgeon, turgid, absenteeism, guise and 38 more...
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Hiding in plain sight
anticryptic, camouflage, chameleon, xenomorphic, obfusc, stegnographic, stealth, dissemble, dissimulate, mask, masquerade, screen and 27 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
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What Do You Mean $
ahh these hurt.....
hermit, prone, maxim, guise, solvenly, lurid, lax, amiable, irate, cloister, mediate, nettle and 100 more...
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Under The Kilt
Anything related to Scottish culture, cuisine, language, history and so on. Does not include Gaelic words unless acceptable (roughly speaking!) in a wider sense.
brae, machair, loch, burn, inverness, shieling, camanachd, shinty, diddy, bhoy, ghillie, brownie and 393 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Words I will probably never use
décolleté, pendragon, amerce, viviparous, dragoon, brigand, outlaw, outlawry, lugubrious, boor, contretemps, decrepit and 167 more...
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Loaded Dice
Off the straight and narrow; less than straight arrow.
chicanery, sophistry, pilfer, rook, diddle, fleece, grift, poach, rustle, pinch, abscond, steal and 140 more...
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a way
an ode and see
how, manner, path, mode, course, fashion, jostle, wend, easement, hardment, passage, anywise and 95 more...
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Dewitful
visions of witfulness and vision - a wise guise
revision, advisor, ideal, witty, witness, veda, druid, penguin, hadal, idea, story, history and 269 more...
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DEF's list
Obscure Words
obfuscate, harbinger, morose, meniscus, conspicuous, grandiose, cogitated, matron, erudite, oness, apothegms, assuage and 475 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for guise.
Alexis Perez appearance, disguise. Under the guise of the night the soilders marched forward. (newbury dic.) Dec 6, 2010
marky hi guise, how are YOOOUUUU doing? Apr 10, 2009
bilby Scots - to go around in fancy dress on the night of Halloween. A person who goes out guising is a guiser. Dec 5, 2007