Pretext

Examples

• So shall you give me protection without sacrifice on your part, or the pretext of requiring any requital from me. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
• If a pretext to get him away could be made out of that other convict, or out of anything else in his life, now. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
• I won't say, I don't believe your pretext for coming and asking for work; I know nothing about it. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
• On the pretext of arranging my rooms and waiting on me and taking care of my wardrobe (all of which she did busily), she was never absent. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
• Heloise and I, under pretext of study, gave ourselves up wholly to love, and the solitude that love seeks our studies procured for us. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
• He says nothing to anyone, but he arranges that he shall go out on some pretext to see his client that night. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
• They are glad of any pretext of drinking any wine. Plato. The Republic.
• Your daughter's death has been made the pretext for inflicting serious injury on a person who is very dear to me. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
• She had tried them; wanted to make them pass; could not; and the pitiless little woman had found a pretext, and determined to be free. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
• He was at Mr. Letterblair's punctually at seven, glad of the pretext for excusing himself soon after dinner. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
• The ploughing of certain sacred lands near Delphi by the Phocians was, for example, the pretext for a sanguinary Sacred War. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
• At all events you _will_ come back: you will not be induced under any pretext to take up a permanent residence with her? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
• I left the room again on the pretext of wishing to see whether Laura was asleep. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
• That is but the pretext, Amelia, or I have loved you and watched you for fifteen years in vain. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
• She was the last to leave the cabin, returning on some trivial pretext after the others had started for the boat. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
• The Chinese authorities kill thousands of innocent people on the most frivolous pretexts. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
• Caleb felt a deep pity for him, but he could have used no pretexts to account for his resolve, even if they would have been of any use. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
• Thou canst easily gratify his greed; for think not that I am blinded by thy pretexts of poverty. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
• It is true they trumped up grievances as a pretext, but they were only pretexts which can always be found when wanted. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.

Typed by Barnaby