3 uses
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Definition
a false appearance or action to help one pretend
- Setting her own inclination apart, to have failed a second time in her engagement to Miss Tilney, to have retracted a promise voluntarily made only five minutes before, and on a false pretence too, must have been wrong.Chapter 13 (52% in)
- Miss Tilney, understanding in part her friend's curiosity to see the house, soon revived the subject; and her father being, contrary to Catherine's expectations, unprovided with any pretence for further delay, beyond that of stopping five minutes to order refreshments to be in the room by their return, was at last ready to escort them.Chapter 23 (4% in)
- Open, candid, artless, guileless, with affections strong but simple, forming no pretensions, and knowing no disguise.Chapter 25 (86% in)
There are no more uses of "pretense" in Northanger Abbey.
Typical Usage
(best examples)