cosplay

noun

1. (uncountable)The art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character.

   “Men, of course, also participate in cosplay and all its attending events, but women make up the greater numbers.”

   “The environments and spaces created for and by cosplay provide cosplayers with a variety of spaces for social interactions.”

   “It didn't take long for anime cons and cosplay to become a part of popular culture fandom in the West[…]”

2. (countable)A skit or instance of this art or practice.

   “Central to the activity of cosplay is elaborate costuming, though some cosplays are enacted using a game system.”

   “According to a student from France who went to Japan to study Japanese, "Universities in France are like Halloween when otaku students engage in these cosplays. They take Japanese language because of anime, but they see after a few classes that it's hard and not fun. Many drop out" (author interview, 2009).”

   “Popular cosplays include, for example, characters from the Final Fantasy range of games[…]”

verb

1. (intransitive)To costume oneself as a character.

   “She cosplayed at the manga convention.”

   “Senior politicians have cosplayed as train drivers, ambulance workers, Border Force officials – the list goes on.”

2. (transitive)To costume oneself as (a character).

   “She cosplayed Sailor Moon at the manga convention.”

3. (derogatory, figuratively, often, transitive)To adopt the behavior and mannerisms of another.

   “Why has the Russian Federation decided to cosplay the Nazi Third Reich by attacking the peaceful neighboring state and plunging the region into war?”

   “On weekends, there was usually a party. Her classmates, free from their wealthy families, cosplayed as struggling intellectuals.”

   “[…] turning conservative white men into amateur commandos cosplaying war wherever they liked and the US into a war zone.”

   “Whilst their stability was generally an improvement on earlier German destroyers, as the vessels no longer displayed a strong desire to cosplay as U-boats, the main armament proved to be something of a problem.”

   “Nigel Farage is a “political fraud and hypocrite” who is “cosplaying” as a working-class champion in order to win votes at this week’s local elections, the UK’s most senior union chief has warned.”