mirage

noun

1. An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, often giving the illusion of a body of water.
2. (figuratively)An illusion.

   “I remember hearing, that in the East the clear and azure waters seem to flow before the weary and parched traveller; yet a little further, and on he urges his weary way, but in vain—the fair stream is a delusion. Even thus happiness is the mirage which leads us over the desert of life, ever fated to end in deceit and disappointment.”

verb

1. (transitive)To cause to appear as or like a mirage.

   “All that had been in his mind seemed suddenly miraged before him—the removal of Hunterleys, his own wife's failing health.”

   “The vision of a salon was miraged before her, with herself in the middle deftly manipulating the destinies of a nation.”