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pretense
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show 189 more with this conextual meaning
  • It is not simply pretense.   (source)
    pretense = a false appearance or action to help one pretend
  • He no longer looked at me, no longer made any pretense of telling the truth.   (source)
    pretense = appearance or action (to help pretend)
  • On Smith Island to the south of us there was no high school, not even the pretense of one that we had on Rass.   (source)
    pretense = an appearance to help one pretend
  • Bryan felt it as though he'd actually peeled off layer after layer of pretense, defense, disguise.   (source)
    pretense = appearances or actions to help one pretend
  • I don't see how we can keep up the pretense past the arrival date of this next ship.   (source)
    pretense = appearance that helps to pretend something
  • Burn right into my brain, burn through my pathetic teeth-clenching tough-guy pretensions.   (source)
    pretensions = appearances or actions to help one pretend
  • Meo made no pretense of not knowing him.   (source)
    pretense = appearance or action to help one pretend
  • "Justice of Toren One Esk," I corrected, dropping all pretense of a Gerentate accent, or human expression.†   (source)
    pretense = a false appearance or action to help one pretend
  • Now a good many of the guests have finished, and, since there is no pretense of ceremony, the banquet begins to break up.   (source)
  • I became in an instant as much of a pretense as the rest of the bewitched pilgrims.   (source)
  • Brom, who had a degree of rough chivalry in his nature, would fain have carried matters to open warfare and have settled their pretensions to the lady, according to the mode of those most concise and simple reasoners, the knights-errant of yore,--by single combat;   (source)
    pretensions = deceitful appearances or actions
  • He could not know that for all my pretenses—my makeup, my new clothes, my china place settings— this is who I was.†   (source)
  • He ignored her, and she admired his perfected pretense of not needing good-bye.†   (source)
  • On the other hand, I'm relieved that we can stop the pretense of being friends.†   (source)
  • He rounded up the officers and hounded them across the bridge and into Tokyo, on the pretense of retrieving firewood from bombed-out houses.†   (source)
  • Turtle paused in a pretense of letting the heirs mull over her last words, trying to figure out what to do next.†   (source)
  • It no longer had the courage of its own pretensions.†   (source)
  • His mother had given up any pretense of eating.†   (source)
  • The Toucan continued listing the virtues of nudity, how being naked took away all pretenses and left others to see her for who she really was.†   (source)
  • Eventually, he had worked up the nerve to invite her out, perhaps under the pretense of discussing some matter of ideological interest.†   (source)
  • Under the pretense of wanting to phone his family, he went to a post office outside the gates of Lubeck and had himself connected to the shipping company in Bremen.†   (source)
  • I wonder if they know that he was an Erudite once; that under all the pretense of Dauntless recklessness and even brutality, he is more like an Erudite than anything else.†   (source)
  • You will see for yourself, Laila jan. She is sturdy, for one thing, a good worker, and without pretensions.†   (source)
  • Instead of answering, the person gave up all pretense of stealth and started running, crashing through the forest line around the clearing of the graveyard, circling toward the spot where Thomas stood.†   (source)
  • I'm tired of Lee's noble pretensions.†   (source)
  • I was sent here under false pretense.†   (source)
  • You have been here under false pretenses.†   (source)
  • Those two towns had both once had hopes, or pretensions, so their main streets were four lanes and wider: old storefronts barely cast shadows a quarter of the way across the glaring expanses.†   (source)
  • Mae saw that Gina was reading the message, too, making no pretense of doing otherwise.†   (source)
  • Ishmael suspected this was pretense.†   (source)
  • She'd managed to convince him to give her a tour under the pretense of extreme boredom—when, in fact, she'd used every moment to plot a dozen escape routes from her room.†   (source)
  • Ned had last seen the king nine years before during Balon Greyjoy's rebellion, when the stag and the direwolf had joined to end the pretensions of the self-proclaimed King of the Iron Islands.†   (source)
  • The HVAC patrol, which had been called in on the pretense of humane incarceration, was working so slowly that Jordan figured they'd master their trade just in time for the snow to start falling again outside.†   (source)
  • He made no pretense of not understanding me.†   (source)
  • It was a pretense, his dithering refusal—he was one of the most confident people she had ever met.†   (source)
  • Evaluator One, who sounded so sweet when she offered me the water, has lost all pretense of friendliness.†   (source)
  • That would shatter her pretense of calm and composure.†   (source)
  • HARRY: Time to cut the pretense, Albus.†   (source)
  • But indoors, it was much too warm for comfort; the pool was dry, with a few inches of sand at the bottom, and there was no pretense of a yard, not even cactuses.†   (source)
  • Only then, when it was too late, and Paradise Pickles slumped softly to the floor without so much as a murmur or even the pretense of resistance, did Comrade Pillai realize that what he really needed was the process of war more than the outcome of victory.†   (source)
  • A moral freeze: I couldn't decide, I couldn't act, I couldn't comport myself with even a pretense of modest human dignity.†   (source)
  • Following the same instinct that had prompted me to lie to Mike, I called Jessica on the pretense of wishing her luck at the dance.†   (source)
  • Conversing under false pretenses in front of our brothers?†   (source)
  • "You thought," Kote said derisively, dropping all pretense of a smile.†   (source)
  • I am tired of its pagan pretensions and false histories.†   (source)
  • Soon again there was silence and her face, though remaining soft, took on a fiery intensity, as if she was able to peer deep inside of him, past the pretenses and facades, down to the places that are rarely, if ever, spoken of.†   (source)
  • Marley, never one to get hung up on pretenses, seemed unimpressed.†   (source)
  • "Yes," I answered in a polite tone, dropping my pretense.†   (source)
  • He had dropped all pretense of questioning me on my underground activities and seemed especially to enjoy hearing about my childhood.†   (source)
  • She is traveling under false pretenses, which are easily penetrated by the allseeing Ereshkigal.†   (source)
  • Coach O actually didn't share the social pretensions of his employer.†   (source)
  • They were about to take their seats when a young gentleman, under the pretense of introducing himself to Dean Liddell, approached.†   (source)
  • She should drive down to the capital on the pretense of seeing the exhibit at the Colombian embassy and refuse to leave.†   (source)
  • I sent her away from him on every pretense I knew.†   (source)
  • Nathaniel is refreshingly uninhibited and without pretense, uttering whatever pops into his head.†   (source)
  • They've usually run ahead on the pretense of making warm-ups or an important pregame meeting.†   (source)
  • And I made no pretense with her of being an ordinary creature.†   (source)
  • , Webster's New Collegiate Make-believe: Pretense or pretend.†   (source)
  • He shows no pretense of good cheer, and I figure he and Jody have talked.†   (source)
  • When I didn't respond, he snuck an arm past my shoulder, on the pretense of sorting through my work, and pressed me into his chest.†   (source)
  • Her eyes are wide open, searching, and when her gaze alights on Vivian's face, it is startling in its intensity, stripped of any pretense or convention.†   (source)
  • This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions.†   (source)
  • As the daughter of the groom, I could hardly keep up the pretense that I spoke only Ayorthaian.†   (source)
  • I think the time has come to drop our pretenses, Roran Garrowsson, and talk openly and without deception.†   (source)
  • I went home and did my reading, then I visited my doctor, making an appointment with the pretense that I wanted a regular checkup.†   (source)
  • Garcia was very busy, but he never let a day go by without seeing Alba, alternating unbridled violence with the pretense that he was her good friend.†   (source)
  • He rode it four times a day, twice to go to the office, twice to return home, and sometimes when his reading was real, and most of the time when it was pretense, he would take the first steps, at least, toward a future tryst.†   (source)
  • The Great Square was filled with common people excited about the coming wedding and anniversary, and they all heard it too, and no one even made the pretense of not being scared, but, again, none of them knew at all what it might have been.†   (source)
  • I liked the move because for the first time I didn't have to share a room with Jim, who never made any pretense of liking me or wanting me around.†   (source)
  • Your dedication is a pretense?†   (source)
  • He, too, was bored, and found Jane's pretensions intolerable.†   (source)
  • Despite being a multibillionaire, J. R. Simplot has few pretensions.†   (source)
  • There was not even a pretense that we had to work.†   (source)
  • People are just as celebrity-crazed as anywhere, but New Yorkers—or at least the ones who consider themselves sophisticates and loiter along the kind of SoHo block I'm standing on now—put on this pretense that they don't care, even as they stare out from their three-hundred-dollar shades.†   (source)
  • Of course she had written my name on her scroll, I knew that, yet hearing her say it aloud tore away a comforting pretense of anonymity.†   (source)
  • I thought we'd dispensed with your pretense of innocence, Jonathan.†   (source)
  • The Buckleys lived far below their pretensions.†   (source)
  • But the details were beyond a child: the fine arbor of blood vessels on his cheeks; muttonchop sideburns dyed bootpolish black; the white ring of arcus senilis around his pupils; gray eyebrows that betrayed his pretense at youthfulness.†   (source)
  • The "Amen, brothers" and "Yes, Jesus" were his permission to take that short hop from the heart to the soul and lay all pretense of gentleness aside.†   (source)
  • He made a pretense of walking up the bank as if nothing was wrong, but his legs had no life in them and he was forced to drop to his knees and crawl up, which only added embarrassment to his misery, the bank being scarcely three feet high and little more than a slope.†   (source)
  • The cat had stopped short and was licking one paw with a pretense of nonchalance.†   (source)
  • The boys stopped short, exchanged looks and dropped all pretense of innocence.†   (source)
  • Or make a pretense of bargaining.†   (source)
  • I needed the pretense that inside the house I was still the same person I'd always been.†   (source)
  • Ever since the Sunday morning of the automobile ride, Shade Buckheath had been making elaborate pretense of having forgotten that such a person as Johnnie Consadine existed.†   (source)
  • Then I explained that I didn't like her because she was mean and petty and full of pretense.†   (source)
  • When Sir Alistair glanced over as though to invite Max to join them, Max stooped quickly on the pretense of tying his shoe.†   (source)
  • Then, without any explanation of why he changed his mind and without any pretense that by talking about this war he could somehow excuse the way he lived, he told me one last story.†   (source)
  • GEORGE III had been twenty-two when, in 1760, he succeeded to the throne, and to a remarkable degree he remained a man of simple tastes and few pretensions.†   (source)
  • The captain was piqued, but managed to carry on with a pretense of optimism.†   (source)
  • He wondered for a moment if she had any idea that he and Henry had seen it last year under the pretense of watching a nice, severely-lacking-blood-and-gore spy movie instead.†   (source)
  • In Yongming County, all women who want a healthy child steal outright—but with the pretense of covertness—a pair of shoes from the goddess's altar.†   (source)
  • I answer in as few words as possible and he nods, knowing we're done with the pretense.†   (source)
  • The lobby and the rooms were threadbare, but there was a pretense to forgotten elegance that gave it an air of timelessness.†   (source)
  • If we get separated there's not much hope of us ever meeting anywhere, but I need to keep up the pretense of hope because that may be all we have.†   (source)
  • I had spent the afternoon preparing, leaving the office on a pretense of illness to avoid having to attend the celebration.†   (source)
  • His chin was lifted, and he wore a look that Deo knew well, a mixture of dignity and tight-lipped amusement at his own pretensions to dignity.†   (source)
  • And then I look around at our pretensions and our beliefs—that we are somehow permanent—and I am reminded that it is the quality of leaders, the courage of a people, the ability to solve problems that enables us to continue for one more year, and then one more year, until our children and our grandchildren have had this freedom, this safety, this health, and this prosperity.†   (source)
  • But the pretense—going on your arm to the embassy ball, visiting your office and the guards saying, "Good morning, good morning, Madame Gallimard" — the pretense ...was very good indeed.†   (source)
  • Björck had hired Teleborian to lock Salander up in a psychiatric hospital for children under the pretense that she was mentally deranged.†   (source)
  • Cole had earlier that evening directed her deputies to mass-evict all of them, on the pretense of unlawful trespass.†   (source)
  • She saw him and said dryly, guiltily, in apology, "I'm sorry, Mr. Rearden," not attempting the futile pretense of hiding her face.†   (source)
  • Fitzgerald to the illegal, under the pretense of a business venture.†   (source)
  • "Callate, there she is!" he exclaimed to his friends who lost all pretense of hiding and gathered so close to him that they nearly shoved him off the curb.†   (source)
  • I think a diversion could be created, or perhaps because of the way spectators are being let to come and go through the jail, we could simply walk them right out under pretense of their daily exercises and spirit them away.†   (source)
  • I excuse myself from the bicycling under the pretense of tending to my knee.†   (source)
  • This is the club pretense, the etiquette.†   (source)
  • Just by imagining, without moving his arms, without any pretense of solidity, he felt as if he were holding his wife and his son.†   (source)
  • He imagined that anyone he encountered would perceive at once that he had returned under false pretenses.†   (source)
  • Booth sits in the back and dangles his oar in the water under the pretense of steering.†   (source)
  • For too long, facts have supported these European pretensions.†   (source)
  • But it is a vital, frisky city unburdened by the pretensions and the genealogical sinuosities of Charleston.†   (source)
  • There was no pretense: he was a prisoner in the hut.†   (source)
  • He did not fly a false flag and claim to be an American, for such a pretense was not possible.†   (source)
  • They don't have to keep up any kind of pretense.†   (source)
  • He described Harriet as "a woman of no pretensions, indeed, a more ordinary specimen of humanity could hardly be found among the most unfortunate-looking farm hands of the South..."Her success was wonderful.†   (source)
  • He offered me a seat and without pretense asked if I wanted to see the questions he planned to ask me.†   (source)
  • He knows I am dying and all his care is simply pretense.†   (source)
  • I've never admitted this to anyone before, lad, but tonight I'm so heartsick I feel at the end of everything, and what's the use of fake pride and pretense.†   (source)
  • They sat very still and made no pretense of not listening.†   (source)
  • It made them laugh to hear her, when strictness was only a pretense.†   (source)
  • And when he pointed out, refusing to respect her pretense at disinterestedness, that he had only two barns built, instead of the fifteen or twenty of a big farmer, and that he could not expect to make thousands, even if the season were good, she brushed this warning aside.†   (source)
  • And as such, he comes into this court under a handicap, notwithstanding our pretensions that all are equal before the law.   (source)
    pretensions = acting as though (pretending)
  • He had stopped his pretense of working; he was standing before her, arms akimbo, dark eyes demanding.   (source)
    pretense = a false appearance or action to help one pretend
  • You and your Ministry of Magic have lured me here under false pretenses, Dumbledore!†   (source)
  • Even though her pretenses had been totally false.†   (source)
  • The decision was already made, just waiting for the pretense of a justification.†   (source)
  • All of the pretenses were starting to wear on me.†   (source)
  • Abandoning all pretense, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible.†   (source)
  • I suppose we all come under false pretenses one way or another, don't we?†   (source)
  • "I don't see that you have to go either!" she snapped, dropping all pretense now.†   (source)
  • He even said hello to her now and again as one element in his pretense.†   (source)
  • Finally Scrimgeour said, with no pretense at warmth, "I see.†   (source)
  • The Ygnirods were resentful of their lot in life, but concealed this with a pretense of stupidity.†   (source)
  • You can give up the college pretense now—you've gotten what you wanted.†   (source)
  • For years now, I've managed everything while you sat about making a pretense of superiority.†   (source)
  • I have half a mind to fire you for letting these people in under false pretenses.†   (source)
  • I hated this pretense of hers, that Everett and I were friends.†   (source)
  • "It's because he's big," Bast said matter-of-factly as he gave up the pretense of sweeping.†   (source)
  • Review, friends—troops long past review: Each a dot of time without pretense or guile.†   (source)
  • We just need to keep the pretense up in front of the grown-ups.†   (source)
  • Shewants you to die so that she doesn't have to keep up the pretense anymore.†   (source)
  • Sheets and blankets had been hung between the various living quarters to make a pretense of privacy.†   (source)
  • Before long, Redd won't have to bother with the pretense of making any deal with us.†   (source)
  • By relying on pretense and false signals, they manage to grab a copulation here or there.†   (source)
  • It's all human teeth anyhow" It's all I can do to keep up the pretense that Papa is making sense.†   (source)
  • The pretense, and how she ached to expose it!†   (source)
  • Inside, the house held a different kind of pretense.†   (source)
  • My pretense of incompetence had now become second nature to me, I scarcely had to think about it.†   (source)
  • Chronicler sat at a nearby table, making a pretense of finishing a bowl of stew.†   (source)
  • She didn't want Jason to think she'd dragged him up here on false pretenses.†   (source)
  • " Abandoning pretense, Harry said, "And it wasn't Sirius?†   (source)
  • "No, I really must go now, thank you, thank you," I say, glad I remembered how the pretense goes.†   (source)
  • They say she has pretensions of a literary nature.†   (source)
  • He gazed back, and the casual pretense suddenly slipped away.†   (source)
  • Next week: Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts — the Prizes and the Pretense.†   (source)
  • Hatsue knew then that her pretense had failed her.†   (source)
  • I kept up the lame pretense, holding my hand open in front of me.†   (source)
  • It's plain, assertive, without pretensions to grace, like a railway clock: utilitarian.†   (source)
  • Paolo and Davinia something-or-other, with pretensions to nobility, I believe.†   (source)
  • A powder-blue jogging suit lacks pretensions.†   (source)
  • Her love for him had been pretense, and yet he had believed, and found joy in that belief.†   (source)
  • John did not hide her in some pretense or scheme.†   (source)
  • She had never seen him shocked like that, his pretenses gone, his expression naked and horrified.†   (source)
  • At the table there was always the pretense of trying to give the envelopes back.†   (source)
  • I assume you're hiding it to maintain pretenses.†   (source)
  • She realized that the pretense was done.†   (source)
  • No pretenses, no attempts to impress, no one trying to show anyone up.†   (source)
  • By dawn, Max had abandoned all pretenses at driving the team.†   (source)
  • But what pretense could the President use to build a big military force in peacetime?†   (source)
  • Dismayed, Eragon dropped all pretenses.†   (source)
  • But he knew that if he stayed he would not be able to keep up the pretense.†   (source)
  • We have gone through a pretense of truce and reformation, straight into deadlock.†   (source)
  • Once home I ducked into workshop on pretense of needing to change arms.†   (source)
  • Ah, the charming Jacqueline, or may we drop the pretense, Domie?†   (source)
  • I ended up not bothering with the pretense of a nice, conservative, innocent dress.†   (source)
  • She remembered what her mother had said, that every emotion Sebastian showed was a pretense.†   (source)
  • Pretenses, he knew, could be well hidden.†   (source)
  • How are Parliamentary pretensions to be reconciled to facts ?†   (source)
  • Let not our posterity be deluded with fictions under the pretense of poetical or graphical license.†   (source)
  • He wanted to spare her the need of pretense or embarrassment, she thought with gratitude.†   (source)
  • Solembum glared at him with slitted eyes, all pretense of detachment gone.†   (source)
  • His pretensions to uncommon glory were one thing.†   (source)
  • The pretense of going to pieces; drink, money troubles, the rumors that Leamas had robbed the till.†   (source)
  • A beautiful, spiritual-looking woman, utterly without pretense.†   (source)
  • Sweetly, the Queen went on, "Or perhaps this hostility of yours is the pretense.†   (source)
  • Orr asked with a pretense of pensive curiosity.†   (source)
  • I greeted her: "Hello, Dolores" (we had long dropped the pretense of familial relationship).†   (source)
  • I want no pretense about love, value, loyalty or respect.†   (source)
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