pretense

plural pretenses · alternative UK pretence · alternative archaic prætense

1. countableuncountableThe action of pretending; false or simulated show or appearance; false or hypocritical assertion or representation.

   He visited the king under the pretense of friendliness.

   5 more examples

   "Lady Little", the title that she used, was just a pretense.

   She appeared to weep uncontrollably, but it was all pretense.

   Great armaments were, therefore, put on foot in Moravia and Bohemia, while the elector of Saxony, under a pretence of military parade, drew together about ſixteen thouſand men, which were poſted in a ſtrong ſituation at Pirna.

   1771, [Oliver] Goldsmith, “George II. (Continued.)”, in The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II. […], volume IV, London: […] T[homas] Davies, […]; [T.] Becket and [P. A.] De Hondt; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, pages 365–366

   The London Saturday Review pays the following well-merited compliment to two American lady authors: “Very few of even our best writers can compass a book for the young which shall be all that it ought to be, avoiding, on the one hand, extravagant sensationality and a standard so high as to be outside human nature altogether; on the other, vapid silliness, which no grown girl can accept as fitting food for her mind at all, and which irritates, as all pretense and make-believe must.[…]”

   1870 October 20, The Revolution, volume VI, number 16 (whole 146), New York, N.Y., page 245, column 2

   There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. [...] Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office, under pretence of expecting letters or despatching telegrams.

   1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, pages 10–11

2. uncountableAffectation or ostentation of manner.

   She was a plain-speaking woman without a hint of pretense.

3. countableuncountableIntention or purpose not real but professed.

   with only a pretense of accuracy

4. countableuncountableAn unsupported claim made or implied.

   They wished to demask hidden metaphysics, to demask the false pretenses of sentences purportively descriptive but de facto metaphysical or evaluative.

   1968, Gerard Radnitzky · · Snippet view, Contemporary Schools of Metascience, page 114

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   He was gentlemanly, steady, tractable, with a thorough knowledge of his duties; and in time, when yet very young, he became chief mate of a fine ship, without ever having been tested by those events of the sea that show in the light of day the inner worth of a man, the edge of his temper, and the fibre of his stuff; that reveal the quality of his resistance and the secret truth of his pretences, not only to others but also to himself.

   1899 September – 1900 July, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, →OCLC, page 9

5. countableuncountableAn insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.

   His visit was duly paid. He came with a pretence at an apology from their sister-in-law, for not coming too […]

   1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

6. countableobsoleteuncountableIntention; design.

   A very pretence and purpose of unkindness.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]