facade

noun

1. 1

   The face of a building, especially the front view or elevation.

   In Egypt the façades of their rock-cut tombs were[…]ornamented so simply and unobtrusively as rather to belie than to announce their internal magnificence.

   Like so many of the finest churches, [the cathedral of Siena] was furnished with a plain substantial front wall, intended to serve as the backing and support of an ornamental façade.

   The house of Ruthven was a small but ultra-modern limestone affair, between Madison and Fifth ;[…]. As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”

   Eight or so gunmen stood shoulder to shoulder in the gray-white trail before the barn, firing into the saloon's burning, bullet-pocked facade.

2. 2

   The face or front (most visible side) of any other thing, such as the prospect of an organ.

3. 3

   figurativeA deceptive or insincere outward appearance.

4. 4

   An object serving as a simplified interface to a larger body of code, as in the facade pattern.

   Facades are widely used for tasks like simplifying complex APIs.

verb

1. 1

   figurativeTo cover or disguise an outward appearance.

   Una was not happy in that small and self-immured company, already bound together by its big year on Broadway. But she façaded her unrest with a determination to improve her mind.

   The parks observed at the entrance, with their fountains and benches and circular drives, were no "Potemkin's villages" facading the lanscape for official visits.

   In fantasy he facades a happy childhood, but in reality it was extremely lonely, and it would appear that he had probably been breast fed through a pair of falsies.

   I don't equate class clown with confidence. Most times, a person acting out like this (clowining) displays the opposite - someone who is insecure enough to be themself so they facade their true feelings via jokes, put downs, laughter, and plain old attention getting the wrong way.

Forms

plural

facades

past tense

facaded

past participle

facaded

present participle

facading

third person singular

facades