pretence
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Alternative forms [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Middle French pretensse, from Late Latin praetensus (prætensus) (past participle of praetendere (prætendere), prae- (præ-) + tendere).
Noun [edit]
pretence (plural pretences)
- (British) An act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext.
- 1819, Oliver Goldsmith, Charles Coote, The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George the Second, Volume 3, page 115,
- Great armaments were therefore put on foot in Moravia and Bohemia, while the elector of Saxony, under a pretence of military parade, drew together about sixteen thousand men, which were posted in a strong situation at Pima.
- 1995, Charlie Lewis, Peter Mitchell, Children′s Early Understanding Of Mind: Origins And Development, page 281,
- In pilot work we have used the method described in Experiment 2 on children′s memory for the content of their own false beliefs and pretence and asked them to differentiate between belief and pretence.
- 2005, Plato, Lesley Brown (translator), Sophist, 231b.
- That part of education that turned up in the latest phase of our argument, the cross-examination of the empty pretence of wisdom, is none other, we must declare, than the true-blooded kind of sophistry.
- 1819, Oliver Goldsmith, Charles Coote, The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George the Second, Volume 3, page 115,
- (obsolete) Intention; design.
- Shakespeare
- A very pretence and purpose of unkindness.
- Shakespeare
Translations [edit]
act of pretending or pretension
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