1. any inaccuracey of perception, cognition, memory, and so forth.

2. either the unconscious process of altering emotions and thoughts that are unacceptable in the individual’s psyche or the conscious misrepresentation of facts, which often serves the same underlying purpose of disguising that which is unacceptable to or in the self.

3. in psychoanalytic theory, the outcome of the dream-work that modifies forbidden thoughts and wishes to make them more acceptable to the ego. Such distortion of the dream wish through the use of substitutes and symbols means that only an act of interpretation can uncover the true meaning of the dream.