Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A false appearance or action intended to deceive.
- noun A professed but feigned reason or excuse; a pretext.
- noun Something imagined or pretended.
- noun The quality or state of being pretentious; ostentation.
- noun A false or studied show; an affectation.
- noun A claim or assertion to a right, especially a false one.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An intention; a design; a purpose.
- noun The act of pretending, or putting forward something to conceal the true state of affairs, and thus to deceive; hence, the representation of that which does not exist; simulation; feigning; a false or hypocritical show; a sham.
- noun That under cover of which an actual design or meaning is concealed; a pretext.
- noun Pretension; aspiration; the putting forth of a claim, particularly to merit, dignity, or personal worth; pretentiousness.
- noun A claim; a right asserted, with or without foundation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension.
- noun The act of holding out, or offering, to others something false or feigned; presentation of what is deceptive or hypocritical; deception by showing what is unreal and concealing what is real; false show; simulation
- noun That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint.
- noun obsolete Intention; design.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun US A false or
hypocritical profession, as, under pretense of friendliness. - noun Intention or purpose not real but professed.
- noun An unsupported claim made or implied.
- noun An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a false or unsupportable quality
- noun pretending with intention to deceive
- noun imaginative intellectual play
- noun the act of giving a false appearance
- noun an artful or simulated semblance
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Another article in the "mainstream" media criticizing President Obama, in which the pretense is about an "open media" and "transparency," but the subtext is obvious – racism, pure and simple.
Reliable Sources: Journos spar over Obama presser question 2009
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The free enterprise pretense is today, again, providing profit to a small number of people and corporations.
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The free enterprise pretense is today, again, providing profit to a small number of people and corporations.
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What should they have done, one of those fake long sloppy kisses in pretense done by couples that probably haven't touched each other in years?
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There are people out there who, in pretense of a dark cloud around him are hiding their racist attitudes and I hope you are not one of them.
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But the biggest pretense is that Georgia is supported by the West.
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I could think of no better way to communicate than with a poem, where pretense is stripped away, leaving only what is beautiful and vital.
And I didn’t even get your name… : Patricia Smith : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007
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The pretense is the result of terror of rejection, just as it is in the Middle Class form, though reasons for possible rejection are worlds apart from the Middle Class conditioning.
A PRIMER ON UNLEARNING CLASSISM Maggie Jochild 2007
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In many Middle Class homes the pretense is enforced as hard or harder than it is in public, in an effort to "prepare one for the big bad world".
A PRIMER ON UNLEARNING CLASSISM Maggie Jochild 2007
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That's the sound of hot air escaping after pretense is punctured by a pointed question.
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