pre|tense

pre|tense
pre|tense «prih TEHNS, PREE tehns», noun.
1. make-believe; pretending: »

My anger was all pretense.

2. a false appearance: »

Under pretense of picking up the handkerchief, she took the money. In this great barrage against the pretensions and pretenses of his contemporaries, Lewis…by no means exhausted his creative energies (New Yorker).

3. a false claim: »

The girls made a pretense of knowing the boys' secret.

4. a claim: »

He makes no pretense to special knowledge.

5. a showing off; display: »

Her manner is modest and free from pretense.

SYNONYM(S): ostentation.
6. anything done to show off.
7. Obsolete. an expressed aim or intention. Also, pretence.
╂[< Anglo-French pretensse, ultimately < Latin praetendere pretend]

Useful english dictionary. 2012.

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