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PRETENCE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of giving a false appearance
Example:
his conformity was only pretending
Synonyms:
feigning; pretence; pretending; pretense; simulation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("pretence" is a kind of...):
deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation (the act of deceiving)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pretence"):
appearance; show (pretending that something is the case in order to make a good impression)
make-believe; pretend (the enactment of a pretense)
affectation; affectedness; mannerism; pose (a deliberate pretense or exaggerated display)
charade; masquerade (making a false outward show)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An artful or simulated semblance
Example:
under the guise of friendship he betrayed them
Synonyms:
guise; pretence; pretense; pretext
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("pretence" is a kind of...):
color; colour; gloss; semblance (an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A false or unsupportable quality
Synonyms:
pretence; pretense; pretension
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("pretence" is a kind of...):
artificiality (the quality of being produced by people and not occurring naturally)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Imaginative intellectual play
Synonyms:
make-believe; pretence; pretense
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("pretence" is a kind of...):
imagery; imagination; imaging; mental imagery (the ability to form mental images of things or events)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Pretending with intention to deceive
Synonyms:
dissembling; feigning; pretence; pretense
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("pretence" is a kind of...):
deceit; deception; misrepresentation (a misleading falsehood)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pretence"):
bluff (pretense that your position is stronger than it really is)
pretext; stalking-horse (something serving to conceal plans; a fictitious reason that is concocted in order to conceal the real reason)
hypocrisy; lip service (an expression of agreement that is not supported by real conviction)
Context examples:
In town I believe he chiefly lived, but his studying the law was a mere pretence, and being now free from all restraint, his life was a life of idleness and dissipation.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
I had heard of some discoveries having been made by an English philosopher, the knowledge of which was material to my success, and I sometimes thought of obtaining my father’s consent to visit England for this purpose; but I clung to every pretence of delay and shrank from taking the first step in an undertaking whose immediate necessity began to appear less absolute to me.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
That our institutions of government and law were plainly owing to our gross defects in reason, and by consequence in virtue; because reason alone is sufficient to govern a rational creature; which was, therefore, a character we had no pretence to challenge, even from the account I had given of my own people; although he manifestly perceived, that, in order to favour them, I had concealed many particulars, and often said the thing which was not.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Miss Tilney, understanding in part her friend's curiosity to see the house, soon revived the subject; and her father being, contrary to Catherine's expectations, unprovided with any pretence for further delay, beyond that of stopping five minutes to order refreshments to be in the room by their return, was at last ready to escort them.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
He came with a pretence at an apology from their sister-in-law, for not coming too; "but she was so much engaged with her mother, that really she had no leisure for going any where."
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
And what inclines one less to bear, she has no fair pretence of family or blood.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
He gave up all pretence at conversation and sat, smoking endless cigarettes, lost in his own thoughts, but he made no remark as to the contents.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Although it required an effort to leave Miss Mills, I fell rather willingly into my aunt's pretence, as a means of enabling me to pass a few tranquil hours with Agnes.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He was inflamed by the intellectual pretence and fraud of those who sat in the high places.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
And so, under pretence of softening the previous outrage, of stroking and soothing me into placidity, you stick a sly penknife under my ear!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
