magician's cloak
- noun
- /məˈdʒɪʃənz kloʊk/
:
capa de mago
- The performer dazzled the audience with his tricks, all while wearing a stunning magician's cloak that shimmered under the spotlight.
Examples
-
He pulled a rabbit out of his top hat and waved his magician's cloak in the air for dramatic effect.
-
As she revealed the final card, the magician let her magician's cloak billow dramatically behind her, adding to the spectacle.
-
Nothing could stop the star from shrinking so small and becoming so dense that it would wrap space completely around it and disappear from view as if swallowed by a magician's cloak.
Academic text (1991)
Synonyms
284
1.3
A long loose piece of clothing worn at ceremonies by judges or graduates
110
1.3
A sleeveless piece of clothing that fastens at the neck and hangs over the shoulders
61
3.2
A loose outer coat that fastens at the neck and hangs down the back
1
4.1
A long coat with a hood that you pull over your head
How Mysterious
Surface Forms
Morphology
magician's + cloak
The meaning is directly compositional: a cloak owned or worn by a magician is transparently derived from 'magician' (person who performs magic) + 'cloak' (a loose outer garment). The possessive construction and the concrete nature of the items make the sense predictable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words, and this pattern is common across many languages.
Etymology
Magician's cloak comes from the simple image of a long cloak that a performer uses to 'hide' objects or people and make them seem to 'vanish'. So the cloak became a sign of 'mystery' and the tricks magicians use to surprise their audience.