pretense Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the act of giving a false appearance
    pretence; feigning; pretending; simulation.
    • his conformity was only pretending
  2. noun pretending with intention to deceive
    pretence; dissembling; feigning.
  3. noun imaginative intellectual play
    pretence; make-believe.
  4. noun a false or unsupportable quality
    pretension; pretence.
  5. noun an artful or simulated semblance
    guise; pretence; pretext.
    • under the guise of friendship he betrayed them

WordNet

Pre*tense", Pre*tence noun (Also<
  • Pretense
  • Pretence
)
Etymology
LL. praetensus, for L. praetentus, p. p. of praetendere. See Pretend, and cf. Tension.
Definitions
  1. The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. Spenser.
    Primogeniture can not have any pretense to a right of solely inheriting property or power. Locke.
    I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford. Evelyn.
  2. The act of holding out, or offering, to others something false or feigned; presentation of what is deceptive or hypocritical; deception by showing what is unreal and concealing what is real; false show; simulation; as, pretense of illness; under pretense of patriotism; on pretense of revenging Cæsar's death.
  3. That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint.
    Let not the Trojans, with a feigned pretense Of proffered peace, delude the Latian prince. Dryden.
  4. Intention; design. Obs.
    A very pretense and purpose of unkindness. Shak.
    ✍ See the Note under Offense. Syn. -- Mask; appearance; color; show; pretext; excuse. -- Pretense, Pretext. A pretense is something held out as real when it is not so, thus falsifying the truth. A pretext is something woven up in order to cover or conceal one's true motives, feelings, or reasons. Pretext is often, but not always, used in a bad sense.

Webster 1913