Pretend
[prɪ'tend] or [prɪ'tɛnd]
Definition
(verb.) put forward a claim and assert right or possession of; 'pretend the title of King'.
Inputed by Dan--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To lay a claim to; to allege a title to; to claim.
(v. t.) To hold before, or put forward, as a cloak or disguise for something else; to exhibit as a veil for something hidden.
(v. t.) To hold out, or represent, falsely; to put forward, or offer, as true or real (something untrue or unreal); to show hypocritically, or for the purpose of deceiving; to simulate; to feign; as, to pretend friendship.
(v. t.) To intend; to design; to plot; to attempt.
(v. t.) To hold before one; to extend.
(v. i.) To put in, or make, a claim, truly or falsely; to allege a title; to lay claim to, or strive after, something; -- usually with to.
(v. i.) To hold out the appearance of being, possessing, or performing; to profess; to make believe; to feign; to sham; as, to pretend to be asleep.
Typed by Lena
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Feign, affect, simulate, counterfeit, sham.
v. n. Make believe, make a show, profess falsely.
Checker: Melva
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Feign, similate, offer, allege, exhibit, propound, affect, profess
ANT:Verify, unmask, detect, test, substantiate, refute
Checker: Rudolph
Definition
v.t. to hold out as a cloak for something else: to lay claim to: to attempt undertake: to offer as true something that is not so: to affect to feel: (obs.) to offer present.—v.i. to put in a claim: to make-believe.—ns. Pretence′ something pretended: appearance or show to hide reality: false show or reason: pretext: assumption: claim; Preten′dant -ent a pretender.—adjs. Preten′ded Preten′sed ostensible assumed.—adv. Preten′dedly.—ns. Preten′der; Preten′dership.—adv. Preten′dingly.—n. Preten′sion act of pretending: something pretended: false or fictitious appearance: claim either true or false.—adj. Preten′tious marked by or containing pretence: claiming more than is warranted: presumptuous: arrogant.—adv. Preten′tiously in a pretentious manner.—n. Preten′tiousness the quality of being pretentious.
Typist: Natalie
Examples
- I do not pretend. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- We cannot pretend to-day that we have arrived at solutions to most of the questions they asked. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The new empires did not even pretend to be a continuation of the world empire of Rome. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- I don't pretend to know anything more about it than I saw. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I don't pretend to know what that unbearable anxiety may have been. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- You don't have to pretend you love me. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- Genoa and Venice, the only two remaining which can pretend to an independent existence, have both been enfeebled by it. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Where he can, your worship,' replied the officer; again pretending to receive Oliver's answer. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- If ever the wind was in the east, said my guardian, pretending to look out of the window for a weathercock, I think it's there to-day! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- And Pilar had been pretending all day. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- If observation shows that reason is an instrument of will, then only confusion can result from pretending that it isn't. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- We were all very low, and none the higher for pretending to be in spirits. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- This I observe in general, without pretending to draw any advantage from it. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- During this last voyage I had no commerce with the master or any of his men; but, pretending I was sick, kept close in my cabin. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- At length, I got up whenever I saw him coming, and standing on the foot-board, pretended to look at the prospect; after which I did very well. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Volta of Pavia, took decided issue with Galvani and maintained that the pretended animal electricity was nothing but electricity developed by the contact of two different metals. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The way he'd say “I've been a regular brown bear to-day,” and take himself in his arms and hug himself at the thoughts of the brute he had pretended. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- He pretended to no gradual change of views; he wheeled about at once. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Quite true,' added Mr Boffin; 'and I tested Venus by making him a pretended proposal or two; and I found him on the whole a very honest man, Wegg. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- When we pretended to be so fond of one another, we exulted over her; that was what we did; we exulted over her and shamed her. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- I was able to invent names for my parents, whom I pretended to be obscure people in the province of Gelderland. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- It's a different thing altogether,--of course, it is,--and yet St. Clare pretends not to see it. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- The science which pretends to investigate and explain those connecting principles, is what is properly called Moral Philosophy. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Every body pretends to feel and tries to describe with the taste and elegance of him who first defined what picturesque beauty was. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- Still looking at the fire, he said-- And who pretends to say Fred Vincy hasn't got expectations? George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Mortimer pretends, at great leisure, to consider. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Its ultimate object, however, it pretends, is always the same, to enrich the country by an advantageous balance of trade. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- But she doesn't dare lose her hold of him on account of the money, and so when HE isn't jealous she pretends to be. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
Checker: Willa