(n.) Ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive; pretense; disguise.
Example Sentences:
(1) • In an emergency UN security council meeting, the US ambassador accused Russia of "looking for a pretext to invade" Ukraine.
(2) "I urge both the monks and the lay Tibetans of the area not to do anything that might be used as a pretext by the local authorities to massively crack down on them.
(3) "Financial aid for this group was usually provided from London under the pretext of charitable donations.
(4) Naureen Shah, director of Amnesty International USA’s security and human rights programme, acknowledged the need for governments to assess their approach in the aftermath of major attacks but said: “What we don’t want to see is government using the Paris attacks as a pretext for extending surveillance authorities or pushing back against reforms that even the government acknowledged as necessary.” Some of the hawkish responses to events in Paris “raise a question of whether there’s an exploiting of public fear and anger and anxiety to push legislation through”, she added.
(5) They also suggest that although Putin was using the rights of the Russian minority in Lithuania and Latvia as a pretext to cause trouble, the rights of Russian minorities needed protection.
(6) The first 80-page file on Smith compiled in 1970 contained allegations from eight men that they were abused as teenagers by Smith on the pretexts of either a medical examination or punishment for misbehaviour.
(7) All over Europe people are being forced by national governments and the EU to suffer the most extreme neoliberal policies under the pretext of solving this crisis,” she said.
(8) In the Brezhnev-era Soviet Union, writers and activists were commonly detained on mental health pretexts.
(9) Amnesty International has called on the Egyptian government not to use Barakat’s death “as a pretext for trampling upon human rights”.
(10) The loss of Section 215 will deprive the NSA of the legal pretext for its bulk domestic phone records dragnet.
(11) Pope Francis has spoken out against those who use religion as a pretext for violence and oppression, in his clearest denunciation yet of the Islamic state militants murdering their way across Syria and Iraq.
(12) "If you listen to what Lloyds said in 2011 when they took the initial £3.2bn charge – that was used for a pretext for making a clawback on 12 executives.
(13) Physical illness may give rise to feelings of hopelessness to which the physician must stay attuned; the patient may also use physical illness as a pretext for seeking help for deeper things that trouble him.
(14) As the White House struggled to impose pressure on Putin, Kerry accused the Russian leader of acting “in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped-up pretext”.
(15) The idea that it could carry on without even the pretext that I was involved in CND when I was a member of parliament is completely and utterly outrageous.” Ruddock said she has written to May today demanding answers and would write again to whoever was the new home secretary after the election.
(16) The pretexts — that Queensland has no house of review, and that the state is in receipt of Commonwealth money — are not new developments.
(17) One week later a 50-minute class in acupuncture and Chinese medicine was given in a community health class to one of the two pretexted groups and one of the two untested groups.
(18) The institute said in a statement: "Contrary to its claims to be a marine wildlife conservation group, in reality [Sea Shepherd] are dedicated to fundraising and to spread violence under pretext of protecting whales.
(19) Their meeting occurred after a series of events that point to this.” Netanyahu made the claim – which he also made in 2012 – to illustrate what he said was the Palestinian history of using holy sites in Jerusalem as pretexts for committing acts of violence against Jews.
(20) "May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman, above all to the right to life and the right of everyone to religious freedom," he said.
Sleeveless
Definition:
(a.) Having no sleeves.
(a.) Wanting a cover, pretext, or palliation; unreasonable; profitless; bootless; useless.
Example Sentences:
(1) This weekend’s games would have to go some way to top the drama of Indianapolis rallying to overcome 28-point deficit against Kansas City , New Orleans posting their first-ever road playoff win in Philadelphia and a sleeveless Colin Kaepernick steering San Francisco to victory over Green Bay at a frozen Lambeau Field .
(2) The TV performance saw Fallon begin, dressed in the sleeveless-denim-and-bandana look Springsteen sported in the mid-80s, before the Boss – dressed identically – came out to take over.
(3) He recounted being in a meeting when a colleague mentioned a boy who had arrived at school in below-zero temperatures wearing just a thin, sleeveless bodywarmer.
(4) The fine needle technic utilizes a sleeveless, thin, flexible needle for transhepatic cholangiography.
(5) Sleeveless dresses were verboten despite the heat of summer.
(6) Sixty percent of that population will be under 30 by 2030, so it’s really time for retailers to take notice that they exist.” For years Muslim women in the UK have had to resort to a jigsaw puzzle assemblage of long sleeved T-shirts and cardigans to cover low-cut necks and sleeveless dresses.
(7) That dress earned universal praise for its elegance, boldness and simplicity, though some jibbed at its sleevelessness.
(8) Umran Ashman has run the website Modestkini since 2005, and alongside her "full cover" burkini-style swimsuits, she offers semi-covered styles, from short-sleeved tunics with three-quarter length leggings to sleeveless dress styles with cycling shorts.
(9) Summer is for those who like salads, greenery, sleeping naked under a sheet instead of cocooned in flannelette and thermals, sleeveless dresses, pedicures and strappy sandals, iced tea and Pimms, laughing gaily in the sunshine instead of nodding sombrely indoors as another Norwegian killer is unmasked, or baking themselves on a beach as the sun beats down.
(10) These women will usually be on the arm of some dude wearing some awful designer denim, a sleeveless shirt, so as to show off his designer tattoos, and expensive sunglasses, which prove, of course, just how cool he is.
(11) Forensics specialists in black sleeveless jackets peered into the soil looking for a flash of white bone.
(12) Jaeger now has three womenswear lines: Jaeger Collection, the don't-frighten-the-horses clothes we all recognise; Jaeger London, innovative dresses and separates for contemporary working women; and Jaeger Black, its premium range of what it considers investment dressing - the perfect sleeveless black shift dress, the evening coat.
(13) A group of tanned young men in sleeveless shirts and cowboy hats roamed, looking a bit like fashion models on their way to a dude-ranch photo shoot.
(14) Whether or not they approved of the Saint Laurent collection, the audience were united in lust for the latest versions (classic and sleeveless) of the house's Perfecto biker jacket.
(15) Robert Swannell, M&S's chairman, promised that the company was listening and said the number of dresses with sleeves was up 20% last year, while the sleeveless range had been cut down from 300 to 173.
(16) Earlier in the day, they will have pulled on one of those green, North Face, sleeveless fleeces over an Aran sweater tucked into the freshly pressed denims and gone stravaiging about the local park.