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What is "pretence"

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pretence
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
pretence
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
drop the pretence (=stop pretending)
▪ He has finally dropped the pretence that he’s innnocent.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
abandon
▪ With relief, I abandoned any pretence at being clever and became a mystic assistant labourer.
drop
▪ Now, though, the New Labour high command seems ready to drop the pretence.
▪ Occasionally, they drop all pretence of fairness.
▪ No other hypocrites in Shakespeare gain so much so quickly, so easily, and can afford to drop pretence so fast.
▪ If only he would drop all this ridiculous pretence, stop acting the fool and raise his game one more time.
▪ By now Miller had dropped all pretence at knowing where he was, and the night was exceedingly dark.
keep
▪ How long could she keep up the pretence of being a competent sailor?
▪ It was only in London they had to keep up the pretence that Buckmaster had nothing to do with his company.
▪ Though we no longer went out together in the evenings, I promised to keep up the pretence that we did.
▪ My friends, mostly similarly ignorant, all keep up this absurd pretence, and all beneath the eyes of an expert.
▪ And referee trying to prize them apart, to keep at least the pretence of a fight going.
▪ Critics could barely keep to the constitutional pretence that the monarch was above political error.
▪ What effort is required to keep up the pretence?
▪ She was strongly aware of his presence, and in the end she couldn't keep up the pretence.
make
▪ Gummer makes no pretence of objectivity in his text.
▪ Wolfowitz's announcement made that pretence no longer tenable.
▪ The kind of love he wanted she could never give, and had never made any pretence of.
▪ It made no pretence of catering to faddish tastes like vegetarianism or high fibre diets.
▪ To make a decent pretence that she cared?
▪ He made a great pretence of studying her ticket, turning it over, then turning it back.
▪ It seems he makes no pretence about his disgusting perversion.
▪ He had never made much pretence at hiding it.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
under false pretences
▪ He got a loan from the bank under false pretences.
▪ Immigration officers attempt to catch people entering the country under false pretenses.
▪ He brought me down here to work for him under false pretences.
▪ He was only interested in himself and his business, and had married her under false pretences.
▪ I felt as if I was there under false pretences.
▪ I got into your office under false pretences, but there was no other way.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ After two weeks he could keep up the pretence no longer and decided to tell her the truth.
▪ Mr Tellwright made no pretence of concealing his satisfaction.
▪ The worst thing about liberal academics is the pretence that they are somehow more open-minded than their opponents.
▪ Wilson asked Carly out to dinner, on the pretence that he wanted to talk to her about business.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Designing with tradition is not a pretence for re-creating the old.
▪ For all her pretence, she loved books.
▪ For six weeks, Charlotte had sustained the pretence that her suspicions about Maurice could somehow be stifled.
▪ Gummer makes no pretence of objectivity in his text.
▪ He adopts Harsnett's premise that possession is a theatrical performance - Edgar continually brings attention to his madness being a pretence.
▪ On the Reach itself, there could be no pretence that this would be an ordinary night.
▪ The parent's intention is often to protect so they hide tears and sorrowing putting on a ghastly pretence of cheerfulness.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pretence

Pretence \Pre*tence"\, n., Pretenceful \Pre*tence"ful\, a., Pretenceless \Pre*tence"*less\, a. See Pretense, Pretenseful, Pretenseless.

Pretence

Pretense \Pre*tense"\, Pretence \Pre*tence\, n. [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 C[ae]sar'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.
    --Shak.

    Note: See the Note under Offense.

    Syn: Mask; appearance; color; show; pretext; excuse.

    Usage: 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.

Wiktionary
pretence

n. 1 (label en British spelling) An act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext. 2 (label en obsolete) Intention; design.

Related phrases:
WordNet
pretence

  1. n. a false or unsupportable quality [syn: pretension, pretense]

  2. an artful or simulated semblance; "under the guise of friendship he betrayed them" [syn: guise, pretense, pretext]

  3. pretending with intention to deceive [syn: pretense, feigning, dissembling]

  4. imaginative intellectual play [syn: pretense, make-believe]

  5. the act of giving a false appearance; "his conformity was only pretending" [syn: pretense, pretending, simulation, feigning]

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "pretence".

The narrow neck of land which joined that place to the continent was fortified against the besiegers, whilst the sea was open, either for the escape of Maximian, or for the succor of Maxentius, if the latter should choose to disguise his invasion of Gaul under the honorable pretence of defending a distressed, or, as he might allege, an injured father.

There is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality.

Under the pretence of holding a Parliament, you can cite all the damned into the burning Evildom, and then bid the devils hurl them headlong to bottomless perdition, and lock them up in its vortex, to trouble you no more.

But the wail was a pretence, for Cass was coming to find that she enjoyed the brouhaha which surrounded her being Countess.

The only charge which could be regarded as important, was, that he had extorted a sum of ten thousand pounds from the East India company, and that he had confiscated some goods belonging to French merchants, on pretence of their being the property of Spanish.

But the nation was in no disposition for rebellion: Mary was esteemed and beloved: her marriage was not generally disagreeable to the people: and the interested views of the malecontent lords were so well known, that their pretence of zeal for religion had little influence even on the ignorant populace.

In the month of November of the same year Bonaparte sent Poussielgue, under the pretence of inspecting the ports of the Levant, to give the finishing stroke to the meditated expedition against Malta.

The monophonic has been done to the death by a whole tribe of shallow charlatans, who, under the pretence that they wrote in a true piano style, literally debauched several generations of students.

When Teekleman hears it told he makes a great pretence of laughing and being seen to be a good fellow who can take a joke, but later relays the remark to Hinetitama who finds herself completely mortified and humiliated.

France and Spain both smarted under the disgrace of the late wars, and burned for revenge, whence there was every reason to apprehend that the armaments they were preparing, under various pretences, would ultimately be employed against England.

I was, how to evade lying together, which was so natural for the state we had pretenced to.

The sacred duty of pursuing the assassins of Othman was the engine and pretence of his ambition.

Armelline, but she does not love me, and refuses to make me happy on one pretence or another.

On pretence of reinforcing the Dutch garrisons in Bengal, he equipped an armament of seven ships, having on board five hundred European troops, and six hundred Malayese, under the command of colonel Russel.

He, therefore, spoke of his purpose to Earl Athelwold, his favorite, whom he bade to pay a visit, on some pretence, to Earl Olgar of Devonshire, to see his renowned daughter, and to bring to the court a certain account concerning her beauty.