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Webster 1913 Edition


Pretence

{

Pre-tense′

,

Pre-tence

}
,
Noun.
[LL.
praetensus
, for L.
praetentus
, p. p. of
praetendere
. See
Pretend
, and cf.
Tension
.]
1.
The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension.
Spenser.
Primogeniture can not have any
pretense
to a right of solely inheriting property or power.
Locke.
I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown’s
pretense
to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford.
Evelyn.
2.
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;
as,
pretense
of illness; under
pretense
of patriotism; on
pretense
of revenging Cæsar's death.
3.
That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint.
Let not the Trojans, with a feigned
pretense

Of proffered peace, delude the Latian prince.
Dryden.
4.
Intention; design.
[Obs.]
A very
pretense
and purpose of unkindness.
Shakespeare
☞ See the
Note
under
Offense
.
Syn. – Mask; appearance; color; show; pretext; excuse.
Pretense
,
Pretext
. A pretense is something held out as real when it is not so, thus falsifying the truth. A pretext is something woven up in order to cover or conceal one's true motives, feelings, or reasons. Pretext is often, but not always, used in a bad sense.

Definition 2024


pretence

pretence

English

Alternative forms

  • pretense (American spelling)
  • prætence (archaic)

Noun

pretence (plural pretences)

  1. (British) An act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext.
    • 1819, Oliver Goldsmith, Charles Coote, The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George the Second, Volume 3, p.115,
      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 Pima.
    • 1915, George A. Birmingham, chapter I”, in Gossamer (Project Gutenberg; EBook #24394), London: Methuen & Co., published 8 January 2013 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 558189256:
      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.
    • 1995, Charlie Lewis, Peter Mitchell, Children′s Early Understanding Of Mind: Origins And Development, p.281,
      In pilot work we have used the method described in Experiment 2 on children′s memory for the content of their own false beliefs and pretence and asked them to differentiate between belief and pretence.
    • 2005, Plato, Lesley Brown (translator), Sophist, 231b.
      That part of education that turned up in the latest phase of our argument, the cross-examination of the empty pretence of wisdom, is none other, we must declare, than the true-blooded kind of sophistry.
  2. (obsolete) Intention; design.

Translations