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.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 68:
Etymology An unadapted borrowing from French mirage c. 1812.
1
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.1915, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo:
The vision of a salon was miraged before her, with herself in the middle deftly manipulating the destinies of a nation.1901, A. E. W. Mason, Ensign Knightley and Other Stories: