All 6 Uses of
pretext
in
Jane Eyre
- then she coined pretexts to go downstairs, in order, as I shrewdly suspected, to visit the library, where I knew she was not wanted;†
p. 139.6
- You will not speak to him on any pretext — and — Richard, it will be at the peril of your life if you speak to her: open your lips —agitate yourself —and I'll not answer for the consequences.†
p. 242.6
- At all events you WILL come back: you will not be induced under any pretext to take up a permanent residence with her?†
p. 258.7 *
- It is one of my faults, that though my tongue is sometimes prompt enough at an answer, there are times when it sadly fails me in framing an excuse; and always the lapse occurs at some crisis, when a facile word or plausible pretext is specially wanted to get me out of painful embarrassment.†
p. 288.4
- I felt the truth of these words; and I drew from them the certain inference, that if I were so far to forget myself and all the teaching that had ever been instilled into me, as — under any pretext —with any justification — through any temptation — to become the successor of these poor girls, he would one day regard me with the same feeling which now in his mind desecrated their memory.†
p. 360.2
- I passed up the street, looking as I went at all the houses to the right hand and to the left; but I could discover no pretext, nor see an inducement to enter any.†
p. 376.2
Definition:
a false reason presented to hide the real reason for doing something