PRETENDED • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Pretended

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/pritˈɛndəd/ /pritˈɛndɪd/ 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."

adjective

Pretended adj. Making a false appearance; unreal; false; as, pretended friend.

See images of 'Pretended'

Etymology of 'Pretended'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pretended" Quotes from Famous Books

... spite of myself and Raffles; and his eagerness fed upon my apparent indecision. He held up his fettered hands, begging and cajoling me to remove his handcuffs, and I, instead of telling him it was not in my power to do so until Raffles returned, pretended to ...

— Mr. Justice Raffles • E. W. Hornung

... it had proved of small use socially, was delighted to show him the remainder of the rooms. Lynde, who was used, of course, to houses of all degrees of material splendor—that of his own family being one of the best—pretended an interest he did not feel. He commented as he went on the taste of the decorations and wood-carving, the charm of the arrangement that permitted neat brief ...

— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser

... him, and was by them taken prisoner, and conducted back to his master. The laws of that country being very severe against slaves, he was tried and found guilty of having fled from his master, and as a punishment for his pretended crime, he was sentenced to be torn in pieces by a furious lion, kept many days without food, to inspire him ...

— Stories about the Instinct of Animals, Their Characters, and Habits • Thomas Bingley

... waiting Joe "down the river," in case they did not give him the "quick and painless." He never had forgiven Joe his unwillingness to gossip with him in jail. The fellow's vindictiveness was evident in the sneering delight that he took on his last night in jail in calling Joe out of his sleep, or pretended sleep, to hear his description of the terrors waiting a man condemned to prison ...

— The Bondboy • George W. (George Washington) Ogden

... La Salle on the recall of his patron, Frontenac. On the other hand, the country was full of the choicest furs, which the Indians had hitherto carried to the English at Hudson Bay, but which the proposed trading-posts would secure to the French. La Verendrye's enemies pretended that he thought of nothing but beaver-skins, and slighted the discovery which he had bound himself to undertake; but his conduct proves that he was true to his engagements, and that ambition to gain honorable distinction in the service ...

— A Half-Century of Conflict, Volume II • Francis Parkman

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