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PRETENDING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
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 ("pretending" is a kind of...):
deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation (the act of deceiving)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pretending"):
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)
Derivation:
pretend (make believe with the intent to deceive)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb pretend
Context examples:
Do not you see that, at this instant, the very passage of her own letter, which sent me the report, is passing under her eye—that the whole blunder is spread before her—that she can attend to nothing else, though pretending to listen to the others?
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
And then, if I could convey to you the glow of his soul when he does see them again; when, coming back after a twelvemonth's absence, perhaps, and obliged to put into another port, he calculates how soon it be possible to get them there, pretending to deceive himself, and saying, 'They cannot be here till such a day,' but all the while hoping for them twelve hours sooner, and seeing them arrive at last, as if Heaven had given them wings, by many hours sooner still!
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
The little tailor, who was only pretending to be asleep, began to cry out in a clear voice: Boy, make me the doublet and patch me the pantaloons, or I will rap the yard-measure over your ears.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
I tell you, my fair lord, she was saying, that it is no fit training for a demoiselle: hawks and hounds, rotes and citoles singing a French rondel, or reading the Gestes de Doon de Mayence, as I found her yesternight, pretending sleep, the artful, with the corner of the scroll thrusting forth from under her pillow.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He caught a glimpse of that pathetic figure of him, so long ago, a self-conscious savage, sprouting sweat at every pore in an agony of apprehension, puzzled by the bewildering minutiae of eating-implements, tortured by the ogre of a servant, striving at a leap to live at such dizzy social altitude, and deciding in the end to be frankly himself, pretending no knowledge and no polish he did not possess.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
We found Mr. Micawber at his desk, in the turret office on the ground floor, either writing, or pretending to write, hard.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I did not like to wound him by pretending not to see his idea; but, as I did not yet understand the cause of his laughter, I asked him.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Laurie lay on the rug, pretending to rest, but staring into the fire with the thoughtful look which made his black eyes beautifully soft and clear.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
But when a creature pretending to reason could be capable of such enormities, he dreaded lest the corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Elizabeth passed quietly out of the room, Jane and Kitty followed, but Lydia stood her ground, determined to hear all she could; and Charlotte, detained first by the civility of Mr. Collins, whose inquiries after herself and all her family were very minute, and then by a little curiosity, satisfied herself with walking to the window and pretending not to hear.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
