(n.) The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension.
(n.) 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 Caesar's death.
(n.) That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint.
(n.) Intention; design.
Example Sentences:
(1) "The ANC pretence that we don't have a social crisis in this country is quite ridiculous.
(2) Athens was unravelling into chaos, unable to form a government and forced into fresh elections , plunging the markets into freefall as Europe's leaders abandoned any pretence that a Greek exit from the euro might not be imminent.
(3) Jean Leston, transport policy manager of WWF-UK, said: "We're being sold airport expansion under false pretences.
(4) Neither Dave nor I seem able to keep up this pretence.
(5) To the seven million citizens who watched Liu’s slow death in equal parts horror and grief, any remaining pretence that modern China is a benevolent paternal state that has moved beyond a brutal response to political debate has been shattered once and for all.
(6) It solemnly proclaimed Ireland's independence, appointed ambassadors to the Peace Conference, where they have not yet been bidden, passed an address to the free nations of the world, and made some pretence of framing orders for its domestic procedure.
(7) In some instances, there was little pretence at hiding that resort to pressure – at least within US government circles.
(8) 'There are other correspondents on BBC radio eg John Pienaar who IMO [in my opinion] have given up any pretence of being impartial and seem to think their job is to criticise Gordon Brown.
(9) Since his hospitalisation, Musharraf has made no public appearances and there has been rampant speculation in the media that he would be evacuated from the country under a medical pretence.
(10) I make no pretence at being well-versed in politics – it is all too often about personalities and emotion – but I do know a thing or two about our constitution, as I once trained to be a lawyer.
(11) And let’s drop the pretence that the west did not effectively back jihadis in Syria either.
(12) Within 30 seconds any pretence was always unnecessary").
(13) On one hand, if the officers had faced charges, it would have drawn “a very clear line in the sand”, deterring future officers from having sex under false pretences on the basis that a rape charge could await them.
(14) "Unfortunately we've had in the region of 500-plus criminals – people hiding under the pretence of the TUC march – who have caused considerable damage, attacked police officers, attacked police vehicles and scared the general public.
(15) It accuses the letter's signatories of being "openly self-interested" and says: "Any pretence that the BBC is not similarly self-interested is at an end."
(16) The BBC presenter confided to the Radio Times that he shares widespread public disdain for the "tawdry pretences" of modern politicians and the "green-bench pantomime" of Westminster politics.
(17) Jones suggests that the great weight of international scientific opinion agreeing that warming is caused by human agency means the BBC need no longer quote balancing deniers when only "the pretence of debate remains".
(18) Blogger Yomi Adegoke said: "Thinly veiling vanity as philanthropy more than irks … the pretence these images are for anything other than an onslaught of 'natural beauty' acclamations, coupled with pats on the back for 'fighting the cause' makes the no makeup selfie mania even harder to stomach."
(19) Brecht provides a memorable montage of life in Nazi Germany where parents live in terror of being denounced by their son and where a Jewish wife, in order to protect her gentile husband, leaves him on the pretence of taking a holiday.
(20) After commenters reacted negatively to a video in which Doré and her friends referred to not eating dessert at lunch because of the need to fit into their fashion week outfits, Doré responded with a post attacking the double standards and dishonesty rife in the media, where ultra-slender actresses maintain a pretence of eating cheeseburgers.
Pretentious
Definition:
(a.) Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming.
Example Sentences:
(1) But BrewDog’s astonishing growth may raise the uncomfortable possibility that in an age of media-savvy and brand-sceptical digital natives, ostentatious displays of “authenticity” – known to some as acting like pretentious hipster douchebags – may have become a necessary condition for success.
(2) All seven did at least try to give this dire and pretentious concept some life.
(3) To acknowledge that it must have seemed pretentious to enjoy 'This Charming Man' when Duran Duran was playing on the radio.
(4) If you ever feel tempted to say "status quo" or "cul de sac", for instance, Orwell will sneer at you for "pretentious diction".
(5) In one of the most pretentious sections, in traffic accidents of the type pedestrian--car, they want to attempt an interdisciplinary study the purpose of which is to obtain certain basic data for expert evaluation of the mechanism of fatal injuries of pedestrians, and a basis for assessing speed limits at sites of increased danger of this type of accidents.
(6) In Manhattan, she is cast as a pretentious, irksome snob of a journalist.
(7) The site also captions shots of the young and pretentious with lines such as: "Hold on, let me check to see if Topshop sells any iPhone purses."
(8) The most pretentious group are young patients working in industry.
(9) They're charged with posh-lad pretentiousness as a result, though I don't know it's all that uncommon for bands to plunder snatches of lyrics from wider culture.
(10) Newest methods are the technically very pretentious intraarterial perfusion with venous hemofiltration and the chemo-embolization of the hepatic artery requiring meanwhile an adjuvant systemic chemotherapy because the chemo-embolization influences only the arterially supplied part of the metastases.
(11) Speaking to Alec Wilkinson of the New Yorker, Springsteen remarked that Seeger "had a real sense of the musician as historical entity – of being a link in the thread of people who sing in others' voices and carry the tradition forward … and a sense that songs were tools, and, without sounding too pretentious, righteous implements when connected to historical consciousness".
(12) The detection of this preclinical stage in particular in sporadic cases is in common clinical practice, due to the low prevalence of the disease in the population and pretentious character as regards applied methods, unreal.
(13) People talk of "journalese" as though a journalist were of necessity a pretentious and sloppy writer; he may be, on the contrary, and very often is, one of the best in the world.
(14) They can now decide for themselves whether that font of wisdom, Halliwell's Film and Video Guide, gets it right by calling it 'a repulsive film in which intellectuals have found acres of significanceÉ it is pretentious and nasty rubbish for sick minds who do not mind jazzed-up images and incoherent sound'.
(15) Tom is a heavy metal fan who, as Matt says in the film, thinks indie rock is "pretentious bullshit"; the National are all around 40 with their carousing days behind them, so Tom brought the party himself, getting wasted on his own and filming himself for kicks.
(16) "You can call it a bacterial heat production effect if you are a pretentious scientist, or you can call it composting," he said.
(17) Describe your ideal audience member Russell Kane TR Discerning, critical, pretentious and stupid.
(18) With regard to the non-pretentious, simple and safe character and the high yield of the procedure the authors consider thin-needle biopsy under ultrasonographic control a foremost operation which makes morphological assessment even of diffuse liver diseases possible.
(19) The operation, though pretentious and time consuming, has the advantage of an extrathoracic approach.
(20) A broad swathe of the middle class, not just collectors, lap up the videos and pretentious installations he lambasts (he has never collected video), and dismiss any scepticism as "conservative".