Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Pretending"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Pretend \Pre*tend"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Pretended}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Pretending}.] [OE. pretenden to lay claim to, F.
pr['e]tendre, L. praetendere, praetentum, to stretch forward,
pretend, simulate, assert; prae before + tendere to stretch.
See {Tend}, v. t. ]
1. To lay a claim to; to allege a title to; to claim.

Chiefs shall be grudged the part which they pretend.
--Dryden.

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. --Milton.

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. --Milton.

4. To intend; to design; to plot; to attempt. [Obs.]

Such as shall pretend Malicious practices against
his state. --Shak.

5. To hold before one; to extend. [Obs.] ``His target always
over her pretended.'' --Spenser.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

pretending
n : the act of giving a false appearance; "his conformity was
only pretending" [syn: {pretense}, {pretence}, {simulation},
{feigning}]


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