Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Pretend   /pritˈɛnd/   Listen
verb
Pretend  v. t.  (past & past part. pretended; pres. part. pretending)  
1.
To lay a claim to; to allege a title to; to claim. "Chiefs shall be grudged the part which they pretend."
2.
To hold before, or put forward, as a cloak or disguise for something else; to exhibit as a veil for something hidden. (R.) "Lest that too heavenly form, pretended To hellish falsehood, snare them."
3.
To hold out, or represent, falsely; to put forward, or offer, as true or real (something untrue or unreal); to show hypocritically, or for the purpose of deceiving; to simulate; to feign; as, to pretend friendship. "This let him know, Lest, willfully transgressing, he pretend Surprisal."
4.
To intend; to design; to plot; to attempt. (Obs.) "Such as shall pretend Malicious practices against his state."
5.
To hold before one; to extend. (Obs.) "His target always over her pretended."


Pretend  v. i.  
1.
To put in, or make, a claim, truly or falsely; to allege a title; to lay claim to, or strive after, something; usually with to. "Countries that pretend to freedom." "For to what fine he would anon pretend, That know I well."
2.
To hold out the appearance of being, possessing, or performing; to profess; to make believe; to feign; to sham; as, to pretend to be asleep. "(He) pretended to drink the waters."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Pretend" Quotes from Famous Books



... I will not pretend to give the words which passed between them at that interview. After a while Lady Mason allowed herself to be guided all in all by her friend's advice as though she herself had been a child. It was decided that for the present,—that is for the next day or two,—Lady Mason should keep ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... unjustly, of having said with unfeeling levity, while the English regiments were contending desperately against great odds, that he was curious to see how the bulldogs would come off. Would any body, it was asked, now pretend that it was on account of his superior skill and experience that he had been put over the heads of so many English officers? It was the fashion to say that those officers had never seen war on a large scale. But surely the merest novice was ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 4 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... to her with reference to those childish ways which hardly became the dull dignity of his position; and his words then would have in them something of unintentional severity,—whether instigated or not by the red-haired Radical Member of Parliament, I will not pretend to say;—but on the whole he was contented and loved his wife, as he thought, very heartily, and at least better than he loved any one else. One cause of unhappiness, or rather one doubt as to his entire good fortune, ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope
... We were shunned, ignored. To some women it might not have mattered; but she had been used to being sought, courted, feted. She made no complaint—did worse: made desperate effort to appear cheerful, to pretend that our humdrum life was not boring her to death. I watched her growing more listless, more depressed; grew angry with her, angrier with myself. There was no bond between us except our passion; that was real enough—'grand,' I believe, is the approved literary ...
— Paul Kelver • Jerome Klapka, AKA Jerome K. Jerome
... Firminus had informed me falsely, or his father him; I bent my thoughts on those that are born twins, who for the most part come out of the womb so near one to other, that the small interval (how much force soever in the nature of things folk may pretend it to have) cannot be noted by human observation, or be at all expressed in those figures which the astrologer is to inspect, that he may pronounce truly. Yet they cannot be true: for looking into the same figures, he must have predicted the same of Esau and Jacob, whereas ...
— The Confessions of Saint Augustine • Saint Augustine


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Free-Translator.com