PRETENSE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Pretense

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/pritˈɛns/ Listen

noun

Pretence, Pretense n.

1.

The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. "Primogeniture can not have any pretense to a right of solely inheriting property or power." "I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford."

2.

The act of holding out, or offering, to others something false or feigned; presentation of what is deceptive or hypocritical; deception by showing what is unreal and concealing what is real; false show; simulation; as, pretense of illness; under pretense of patriotism; on pretense of revenging Caesar's death.

3.

That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint. "Let not the Trojans, with a feigned pretense Of proffered peace, delude the Latian prince."

4.

Intention; design. (Obs.) "A very pretense and purpose of unkindness." Note: See the Note under Offense.

Synonyms: Mask; appearance; color; show; pretext; excuse. Pretense, Pretext. A pretense is something held out as real when it is not so, thus falsifying the truth. A pretext is something woven up in order to cover or conceal one's true motives, feelings, or reasons. Pretext is often, but not always, used in a bad sense.

See images of 'Pretense'

Etymology of 'Pretense'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pretense" Quotes from Famous Books

... his age, his dyes, his artificialities, to all the crowd, so to touch him where it would most pain him! For was he not the vainest man in the whole world? How well I knew his vulnerable point: the monstrous depth of his vanity in that pretense of youth which he preserved through superhuman pains and a genius of a valet, most excellently! I had much to pay Antonio for myself, more for my father, most for my mother. This was why that last of all the world I would have wished ...

— The Beautiful Lady • Booth Tarkington

... the result of my surroundings. I have been trying to pretend to myself, ever since we left Washington, that we are traveling through a strange country; but it is a mere pretense. I have been trying to verify some previous impressions ...

— Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches • Joel Chandler Harris

... (adj.), stretched; ten'sion; intense' (-ify); osten'sible (Lat. v. osten'dere, to stretch out or spread before one), apparent; pretense'. ...

— New Word-Analysis - Or, School Etymology of English Derivative Words • William Swinton

... situation. It was unthinkable that Mr. Flint had deliberately planned this piece of foolishness. He must have had some idea of work when he had telephoned her; perhaps he still had. It was his way of being facetious, she argued, this fine pretense that it was all to be a pleasant lark, or it may have been his idea of hospitality. Of course he had been drinking, but she took comfort in the thought that there must be instinctive standards in a man ...

— The Blood Red Dawn • Charles Caldwell Dobie

... well as ever, but the doctor keeps some of the children still confined to the house for fear of bad consequences following the fever. He visits them twice a day for the same reason, or at least under that pretense, but I really believe he comes because he has got the habit of coming, and because he admires Aunty so much. She has a real affection for him, and is continually asking me if I don't like this and that quality in him which ...

— Stepping Heavenward • Mrs. E. Prentiss

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