PRETEND • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Pretend

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/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."

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Etymology of 'Pretend'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pretend" Quotes from Famous Books

... only concerned with it here in its character of an economic system, and all we have attempted to show is that, as an economic system, it finds no support in the teaching of the scholastic writers. We do not pretend to suggest which of these two systems is more likely to bring salvation to the modern world; we simply wish to emphasise that they are two systems, and not one. One's inability to distinguish between Christ and Barabbas should ...

— An Essay on Mediaeval Economic Teaching • George O'Brien

... friends. I so sincerely wish that your conjectures on this head may not be well founded, that I am led to hope you carry your suspicions too far, and the more so as Dr Franklin, to whom I dare say you have communicated them freely, does not (as you say) agree in sentiment with you. But I pretend not to judge, since I have not the advantage of seeing from the same ground. Perhaps some light may be thrown upon the subject by such facts as I have been able to collect here, and with which it is impossible you ...

— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. VIII • Various

... him to let 'im have it then, but 'e wouldn't, and for another week he 'ad to pretend 'e was a Zulu of an evening, and try and persuade Kumbo that he was an English gentleman ...

— Sailor's Knots (Entire Collection) • W.W. Jacobs

... may be a blunder of the most awkward kind. There are people who profess to teach how and in what terms an offer of marriage should be made, whether by letter or by mouth, and, in either case, what should be said. I pretend to no such knowledge, believing that if the heart cannot suggest the way and the words, nothing else can ...

— Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society • Sarah Annie Frost

... necessary to specify the matter which it was proposed to discuss. Arthur knew perfectly that Susie wished to talk of Margaret, and he was too straightforward to pretend otherwise. ...

— The Magician • Somerset Maugham

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