Definition of pretence in English:

pretence

(US pretense)

noun prɪˈtɛns

1An attempt to make something that is not the case appear true.
假装；矫饰；做作；推托，借口
his anger is masked by a pretence that all is well
他装作若无其事，掩饰了自己的怒意。
mass noun they have finally abandoned their secrecy and pretence
他们最终放弃了保密和伪装。
Example sentencesExamples
- One of the nice things about this world is that, when the screwers talk to the screwed, they've abandoned the current pretense of pretending it's for the screwed's own good.
- The man promises to tell his son of her visit and, keeping up the pretence, goes to a masked ball under the guise of his ‘son’.
- In lucid prose, he shreds pretenses and pretexts and demands consistent, bright lines.
- Hyper-tokenism embraces the widely accepted notion that we are all pretending, and further insinuates that pretenses can be more or less complete, more or less willed.
- In so doing, all nine justices recognized that a dead person retains an interest in a good reputation - shattering the common pretense that this was not true.
- However, in those circumstances, the whole scheme would be a sham and a pretence.
- He scares me and I release my gaze and move over to the mirror with the pretence of adjusting my appearance.
- He had circled around to come to the village by the south, on the pretence of making it appear that he was headed for Kaye.
- Secondly during the course of the negotiations he put forward the pretence about the attempts to obtain finance.
- This utterly engaging and thoroughly likeable book masquerades under the pretence of being a search for ‘the perfect meal’.
- She claimed that Proctors had cancelled lectures on the pretence of security fears in a deliberate attempt to divide student opinion.
- Were I lying, then I would simply bestow upon you some vague time in the future, so as to draw things out for pretenses and falsehoods.
- The peace-seeking pretense was dripping with charade in the months before the invasion.
- All the players involved in this charade understand they are acting on the flimsiest of pretenses; it's just that relying on polls is so much easier than actually reporting or leading.
- After all its just a thrown together bunch of experiences with the narrowest of pretenses holding it all together.
- The suggestion that people are arbitrarily reliving the past and exploiting it under the pretense of creating art strikes her as an affront.
- Or else a fall from the pretence, or realization of the true circumstances, may be a greater jarring of the spirits than the status quo.
- At least in recent years the Federal Government has abandoned the pretence of supporting the UN target while making no genuine attempt to achieve it.
- This is music to play when you're at the cottage, when all your defenses and pretenses are left back in the city.
Synonyms
make-believe, act, putting on an act, acting, dissembling, shamming, sham, faking, feigning, simulation, falsification, dissimulation, invention, imagination, self-deception, play-acting, posturing, posture, posing, pose, cant, attitudinizing
deception, deceit, deceitfulness, fraud, hoax, fraudulence, fabrication, duplicity, artifice, subterfuge, treachery, trickery, dishonesty, hypocrisy, falsity, lying, mendacity, lack of veracity
British false colours
informal kidology
rare simulacrum
false show, show, semblance, affectation, false appearance, appearance, outward appearance, impression, image, front, false front, guise, colour, facade, display, posture, pose, masquerade, mask, cloak, veil, veneer, smokescreen, camouflage, cover, travesty, parody, charade
archaic snivel
pretext, false excuse, guise, sham, ruse, wile, trickery
lie, falsehood
1. 1.1 A false display of feelings, attitudes, or intentions.
  虚伪，虚假
  he asked me questions without any pretence at politeness
  他毫不客气地问我各种问题。
  Example sentencesExamples
  Marriage has been reduced to the necessary pretenses of true love.
  They'll put on the usual pretenses of being happy to be there, and all, but I know it's all a facade.
  Synonyms
  false show, show, semblance, affectation, false appearance, appearance, outward appearance, impression, image, front, false front, guise, colour, facade, display, posture, pose, masquerade, mask, cloak, veil, veneer, smokescreen, camouflage, cover, travesty, parody, charade
2. 1.2mass noun The practice of inventing imaginary situations in play.
  装扮游戏角色
  before the age of two, children start to engage in pretence
  孩子在两岁以前就开始装扮游戏角色了。
  Example sentencesExamples
  These people are all engaged in a game of pretence.
  This gap refers to the lack of opportunities to engage in pretense and exploration with language that occurs through free play in the classroom.
  It appears that the communicative competence is better displayed when children engage in pretense situations.
  ‘I once told a massager he had magic hands, that was embarrassing,’ I blurted, without thought to set up the background of my story or pretence.
  Synonyms
  invention, concoction, piece of fiction, fiction, falsification, falsity, lie, untruth, falsehood, fib, deception, made-up story, trumped-up story, fairy story, fairy tale, cock and bull story, barefaced lie
3. 1.3mass noun Affected and ostentatious speech and behaviour.
  虚浮炫耀的语言（或行为）
  they have always avoided preciousness and pretence
  Example sentencesExamples
  The former live their lives within a rigid moralism and behavioral codes and have a supercilious social pretense.
  The novel is also natural in the sense of man's everyday life, done without pretence and pose.
  Ten years passing only heightens his status as a true street poet, devoid of current bling-bling pretense and full of scathing wit and sharp charm.
  And a waiting moment was enough - she and I yet again flinging every possible limit aside, deciding on all manner of pretense and affectation.
  But true appreciation of wine derives from the realization that it is meant to be shared with those around us, without pretense or affectation, in proper measure, and as an enhancement to our lives.
  The walk would be an in-the-flesh demonstration, without pomp and pretence, as to just how in touch with real life our officials at City Hall are, or are not.
  Besides, he has no tolerance for the pomp, pageantry and pretense of the whole show.
  It means that we let go of posturing and pretence and live simply as we are, in truth, at ease with ourselves and with others, not having to worry about who's up or who's down, who's in or who's out.
  There's no self-glorification and no hard-sell behind London's brightest young things, no pomp and no pretence.
  A country that wants to see real improvements in real services - not posturing and pretence.
  Synonyms
  pretentiousness, display, ostentation, affectation, showiness, flaunting, posturing, posing, humbug
2pretence toA claim to have a particular skill or quality.
he was quick to disclaim any pretence to superiority
他急忙否认自己以优越自居。
Example sentencesExamples
- As in the previous volume, any pretence to scholarship goes out the window when no specific source is given for the great majority of quotations or the books from which analysis is drawn.
- I'm looking to be entertained: boredom, tedium is the worst literary or filmic sin, and cannot be excused by a pretence to some spurious intellectual superiority.
- In this regard, the menace of bio-terrorism can be seen as usefully clarifying, since it eliminates all pretence to political legitimacy and announces itself starkly as a planetary scourge.
- One seductive resolution to this conundrum is to abandon all pretence to scientific neutrality.
- Thus he dismissed as insubstantial any pretence to an absolute form of knowledge, which seeks to soar above the resistant medium of experience.
- It allows the creative subject to be transformed in and by versions of reality as a result of giving up the pretence to creative autonomy.
- Describing the film as a reflection of life in present India, the film-maker points out that the roles the characters play within the film become their masks and pretence to higher moral ground.
- Finding the enclosures is made more difficult by the sixty odd additions made since the opening, none of which makes any pretence to architectural merit.
- The real scandal is that a newspaper that once had some pretense to quality now prints ignorant drivel like this.
- At the same time, she would inscribe a self that is so multiple and mutable as to subvert, by its very nature, any pretence to stability - much less the transcendence of a single identity.
- In using the term ‘horrifying’, I am not including am-dram productions of The King and I, which never had any serious pretense to quality.
Synonyms
claim, aspiration, purporting, profession

Origin

Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French pretense, based on medieval Latin pretensus 'pretended', alteration of Latin praetentus, from the verb praetendere (see pretend).

Definition of pretense in US English:

pretense

(British pretence)

noun

1An attempt to make something that is not the case appear true.
假装；矫饰；做作；推托，借口
his anger is masked by a pretense that all is well
他装作若无其事，掩饰了自己的怒意。
they have finally abandoned their secrecy and pretense
他们最终放弃了保密和伪装。
Example sentencesExamples
- In lucid prose, he shreds pretenses and pretexts and demands consistent, bright lines.
- The suggestion that people are arbitrarily reliving the past and exploiting it under the pretense of creating art strikes her as an affront.
- This is music to play when you're at the cottage, when all your defenses and pretenses are left back in the city.
- Hyper-tokenism embraces the widely accepted notion that we are all pretending, and further insinuates that pretenses can be more or less complete, more or less willed.
- One of the nice things about this world is that, when the screwers talk to the screwed, they've abandoned the current pretense of pretending it's for the screwed's own good.
- Were I lying, then I would simply bestow upon you some vague time in the future, so as to draw things out for pretenses and falsehoods.
- He had circled around to come to the village by the south, on the pretence of making it appear that he was headed for Kaye.
- This utterly engaging and thoroughly likeable book masquerades under the pretence of being a search for ‘the perfect meal’.
- However, in those circumstances, the whole scheme would be a sham and a pretence.
- In so doing, all nine justices recognized that a dead person retains an interest in a good reputation - shattering the common pretense that this was not true.
- She claimed that Proctors had cancelled lectures on the pretence of security fears in a deliberate attempt to divide student opinion.
- The peace-seeking pretense was dripping with charade in the months before the invasion.
- Or else a fall from the pretence, or realization of the true circumstances, may be a greater jarring of the spirits than the status quo.
- He scares me and I release my gaze and move over to the mirror with the pretence of adjusting my appearance.
- Secondly during the course of the negotiations he put forward the pretence about the attempts to obtain finance.
- At least in recent years the Federal Government has abandoned the pretence of supporting the UN target while making no genuine attempt to achieve it.
- The man promises to tell his son of her visit and, keeping up the pretence, goes to a masked ball under the guise of his ‘son’.
- After all its just a thrown together bunch of experiences with the narrowest of pretenses holding it all together.
- All the players involved in this charade understand they are acting on the flimsiest of pretenses; it's just that relying on polls is so much easier than actually reporting or leading.
Synonyms
make-believe, act, putting on an act, acting, dissembling, shamming, sham, faking, feigning, simulation, falsification, dissimulation, invention, imagination, self-deception, play-acting, posturing, posture, posing, pose, cant, attitudinizing
false show, show, semblance, affectation, false appearance, appearance, outward appearance, impression, image, front, false front, guise, colour, facade, display, posture, pose, masquerade, mask, cloak, veil, veneer, smokescreen, camouflage, cover, travesty, parody, charade
pretext, false excuse, guise, sham, ruse, wile, trickery
1. 1.1 A false display of feelings, attitudes, or intentions.
  虚伪，虚假
  he asked me questions without any pretense at politeness
  他毫不客气地问我各种问题。
  Example sentencesExamples
  They'll put on the usual pretenses of being happy to be there, and all, but I know it's all a facade.
  Marriage has been reduced to the necessary pretenses of true love.
  Synonyms
  false show, show, semblance, affectation, false appearance, appearance, outward appearance, impression, image, front, false front, guise, colour, facade, display, posture, pose, masquerade, mask, cloak, veil, veneer, smokescreen, camouflage, cover, travesty, parody, charade
2. 1.2 The practice of inventing imaginary situations in play.
  装扮游戏角色
  before the age of two, children start to engage in pretense
  孩子在两岁以前就开始装扮游戏角色了。
  Example sentencesExamples
  This gap refers to the lack of opportunities to engage in pretense and exploration with language that occurs through free play in the classroom.
  These people are all engaged in a game of pretence.
  It appears that the communicative competence is better displayed when children engage in pretense situations.
  ‘I once told a massager he had magic hands, that was embarrassing,’ I blurted, without thought to set up the background of my story or pretence.
  Synonyms
  invention, concoction, piece of fiction, fiction, falsification, falsity, lie, untruth, falsehood, fib, deception, made-up story, trumped-up story, fairy story, fairy tale, cock and bull story, barefaced lie
3. 1.3 Affected and ostentatious speech and behavior.
  虚浮炫耀的语言（或行为）
  Example sentencesExamples
  It means that we let go of posturing and pretence and live simply as we are, in truth, at ease with ourselves and with others, not having to worry about who's up or who's down, who's in or who's out.
  There's no self-glorification and no hard-sell behind London's brightest young things, no pomp and no pretence.
  The novel is also natural in the sense of man's everyday life, done without pretence and pose.
  A country that wants to see real improvements in real services - not posturing and pretence.
  And a waiting moment was enough - she and I yet again flinging every possible limit aside, deciding on all manner of pretense and affectation.
  The former live their lives within a rigid moralism and behavioral codes and have a supercilious social pretense.
  The walk would be an in-the-flesh demonstration, without pomp and pretence, as to just how in touch with real life our officials at City Hall are, or are not.
  Besides, he has no tolerance for the pomp, pageantry and pretense of the whole show.
  But true appreciation of wine derives from the realization that it is meant to be shared with those around us, without pretense or affectation, in proper measure, and as an enhancement to our lives.
  Ten years passing only heightens his status as a true street poet, devoid of current bling-bling pretense and full of scathing wit and sharp charm.
  Synonyms
  pretentiousness, display, ostentation, affectation, showiness, flaunting, posturing, posing, humbug
2pretense toA claim, especially a false or ambitious one.
自吹，自诩，自命
he was quick to disclaim any pretense to superiority
他急忙否认自己以优越自居。
Example sentencesExamples
- In using the term ‘horrifying’, I am not including am-dram productions of The King and I, which never had any serious pretense to quality.
- In this regard, the menace of bio-terrorism can be seen as usefully clarifying, since it eliminates all pretence to political legitimacy and announces itself starkly as a planetary scourge.
- It allows the creative subject to be transformed in and by versions of reality as a result of giving up the pretence to creative autonomy.
- Finding the enclosures is made more difficult by the sixty odd additions made since the opening, none of which makes any pretence to architectural merit.
- Describing the film as a reflection of life in present India, the film-maker points out that the roles the characters play within the film become their masks and pretence to higher moral ground.
- Thus he dismissed as insubstantial any pretence to an absolute form of knowledge, which seeks to soar above the resistant medium of experience.
- The real scandal is that a newspaper that once had some pretense to quality now prints ignorant drivel like this.
- At the same time, she would inscribe a self that is so multiple and mutable as to subvert, by its very nature, any pretence to stability - much less the transcendence of a single identity.
- I'm looking to be entertained: boredom, tedium is the worst literary or filmic sin, and cannot be excused by a pretence to some spurious intellectual superiority.
- One seductive resolution to this conundrum is to abandon all pretence to scientific neutrality.
- As in the previous volume, any pretence to scholarship goes out the window when no specific source is given for the great majority of quotations or the books from which analysis is drawn.
Synonyms
claim, aspiration, purporting, profession

Origin

Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French pretense, based on medieval Latin pretensus ‘pretended’, alteration of Latin praetentus, from the verb praetendere (see pretend).

单词	pretence
释义	Definition of pretence in English: pretence (US pretense) noun prɪˈtɛns 1An attempt to make something that is not the case appear true. 假装；矫饰；做作；推托，借口 his anger is masked by a pretence that all is well 他装作若无其事，掩饰了自己的怒意。 mass noun they have finally abandoned their secrecy and pretence 他们最终放弃了保密和伪装。 Example sentencesExamples One of the nice things about this world is that, when the screwers talk to the screwed, they've abandoned the current pretense of pretending it's for the screwed's own good. The man promises to tell his son of her visit and, keeping up the pretence, goes to a masked ball under the guise of his ‘son’. In lucid prose, he shreds pretenses and pretexts and demands consistent, bright lines. Hyper-tokenism embraces the widely accepted notion that we are all pretending, and further insinuates that pretenses can be more or less complete, more or less willed. In so doing, all nine justices recognized that a dead person retains an interest in a good reputation - shattering the common pretense that this was not true. However, in those circumstances, the whole scheme would be a sham and a pretence. He scares me and I release my gaze and move over to the mirror with the pretence of adjusting my appearance. He had circled around to come to the village by the south, on the pretence of making it appear that he was headed for Kaye. Secondly during the course of the negotiations he put forward the pretence about the attempts to obtain finance. This utterly engaging and thoroughly likeable book masquerades under the pretence of being a search for ‘the perfect meal’. She claimed that Proctors had cancelled lectures on the pretence of security fears in a deliberate attempt to divide student opinion. Were I lying, then I would simply bestow upon you some vague time in the future, so as to draw things out for pretenses and falsehoods. The peace-seeking pretense was dripping with charade in the months before the invasion. All the players involved in this charade understand they are acting on the flimsiest of pretenses; it's just that relying on polls is so much easier than actually reporting or leading. After all its just a thrown together bunch of experiences with the narrowest of pretenses holding it all together. The suggestion that people are arbitrarily reliving the past and exploiting it under the pretense of creating art strikes her as an affront. Or else a fall from the pretence, or realization of the true circumstances, may be a greater jarring of the spirits than the status quo. At least in recent years the Federal Government has abandoned the pretence of supporting the UN target while making no genuine attempt to achieve it. This is music to play when you're at the cottage, when all your defenses and pretenses are left back in the city. Synonyms make-believe, act, putting on an act, acting, dissembling, shamming, sham, faking, feigning, simulation, falsification, dissimulation, invention, imagination, self-deception, play-acting, posturing, posture, posing, pose, cant, attitudinizing deception, deceit, deceitfulness, fraud, hoax, fraudulence, fabrication, duplicity, artifice, subterfuge, treachery, trickery, dishonesty, hypocrisy, falsity, lying, mendacity, lack of veracity British false colours informal kidology rare simulacrum false show, show, semblance, affectation, false appearance, appearance, outward appearance, impression, image, front, false front, guise, colour, facade, display, posture, pose, masquerade, mask, cloak, veil, veneer, smokescreen, camouflage, cover, travesty, parody, charade archaic snivel pretext, false excuse, guise, sham, ruse, wile, trickery lie, falsehood 1.1 A false display of feelings, attitudes, or intentions. 虚伪，虚假 he asked me questions without any pretence at politeness 他毫不客气地问我各种问题。 Example sentencesExamples Marriage has been reduced to the necessary pretenses of true love. They'll put on the usual pretenses of being happy to be there, and all, but I know it's all a facade. Synonyms false show, show, semblance, affectation, false appearance, appearance, outward appearance, impression, image, front, false front, guise, colour, facade, display, posture, pose, masquerade, mask, cloak, veil, veneer, smokescreen, camouflage, cover, travesty, parody, charade 1.2mass noun The practice of inventing imaginary situations in play. 装扮游戏角色 before the age of two, children start to engage in pretence 孩子在两岁以前就开始装扮游戏角色了。 Example sentencesExamples These people are all engaged in a game of pretence. This gap refers to the lack of opportunities to engage in pretense and exploration with language that occurs through free play in the classroom. It appears that the communicative competence is better displayed when children engage in pretense situations. ‘I once told a massager he had magic hands, that was embarrassing,’ I blurted, without thought to set up the background of my story or pretence. Synonyms invention, concoction, piece of fiction, fiction, falsification, falsity, lie, untruth, falsehood, fib, deception, made-up story, trumped-up story, fairy story, fairy tale, cock and bull story, barefaced lie 1.3mass noun Affected and ostentatious speech and behaviour. 虚浮炫耀的语言（或行为） they have always avoided preciousness and pretence Example sentencesExamples The former live their lives within a rigid moralism and behavioral codes and have a supercilious social pretense. The novel is also natural in the sense of man's everyday life, done without pretence and pose. Ten years passing only heightens his status as a true street poet, devoid of current bling-bling pretense and full of scathing wit and sharp charm. And a waiting moment was enough - she and I yet again flinging every possible limit aside, deciding on all manner of pretense and affectation. But true appreciation of wine derives from the realization that it is meant to be shared with those around us, without pretense or affectation, in proper measure, and as an enhancement to our lives. The walk would be an in-the-flesh demonstration, without pomp and pretence, as to just how in touch with real life our officials at City Hall are, or are not. Besides, he has no tolerance for the pomp, pageantry and pretense of the whole show. It means that we let go of posturing and pretence and live simply as we are, in truth, at ease with ourselves and with others, not having to worry about who's up or who's down, who's in or who's out. There's no self-glorification and no hard-sell behind London's brightest young things, no pomp and no pretence. A country that wants to see real improvements in real services - not posturing and pretence. Synonyms pretentiousness, display, ostentation, affectation, showiness, flaunting, posturing, posing, humbug 2pretence toA claim to have a particular skill or quality. he was quick to disclaim any pretence to superiority 他急忙否认自己以优越自居。 Example sentencesExamples As in the previous volume, any pretence to scholarship goes out the window when no specific source is given for the great majority of quotations or the books from which analysis is drawn. I'm looking to be entertained: boredom, tedium is the worst literary or filmic sin, and cannot be excused by a pretence to some spurious intellectual superiority. In this regard, the menace of bio-terrorism can be seen as usefully clarifying, since it eliminates all pretence to political legitimacy and announces itself starkly as a planetary scourge. One seductive resolution to this conundrum is to abandon all pretence to scientific neutrality. Thus he dismissed as insubstantial any pretence to an absolute form of knowledge, which seeks to soar above the resistant medium of experience. It allows the creative subject to be transformed in and by versions of reality as a result of giving up the pretence to creative autonomy. Describing the film as a reflection of life in present India, the film-maker points out that the roles the characters play within the film become their masks and pretence to higher moral ground. Finding the enclosures is made more difficult by the sixty odd additions made since the opening, none of which makes any pretence to architectural merit. The real scandal is that a newspaper that once had some pretense to quality now prints ignorant drivel like this. At the same time, she would inscribe a self that is so multiple and mutable as to subvert, by its very nature, any pretence to stability - much less the transcendence of a single identity. In using the term ‘horrifying’, I am not including am-dram productions of The King and I, which never had any serious pretense to quality. Synonyms claim, aspiration, purporting, profession Origin Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French pretense, based on medieval Latin pretensus 'pretended', alteration of Latin praetentus, from the verb praetendere (see pretend). Definition of pretense in US English: pretense (British pretence) noun 1An attempt to make something that is not the case appear true. 假装；矫饰；做作；推托，借口 his anger is masked by a pretense that all is well 他装作若无其事，掩饰了自己的怒意。 they have finally abandoned their secrecy and pretense 他们最终放弃了保密和伪装。 Example sentencesExamples In lucid prose, he shreds pretenses and pretexts and demands consistent, bright lines. The suggestion that people are arbitrarily reliving the past and exploiting it under the pretense of creating art strikes her as an affront. This is music to play when you're at the cottage, when all your defenses and pretenses are left back in the city. Hyper-tokenism embraces the widely accepted notion that we are all pretending, and further insinuates that pretenses can be more or less complete, more or less willed. One of the nice things about this world is that, when the screwers talk to the screwed, they've abandoned the current pretense of pretending it's for the screwed's own good. Were I lying, then I would simply bestow upon you some vague time in the future, so as to draw things out for pretenses and falsehoods. He had circled around to come to the village by the south, on the pretence of making it appear that he was headed for Kaye. This utterly engaging and thoroughly likeable book masquerades under the pretence of being a search for ‘the perfect meal’. However, in those circumstances, the whole scheme would be a sham and a pretence. In so doing, all nine justices recognized that a dead person retains an interest in a good reputation - shattering the common pretense that this was not true. She claimed that Proctors had cancelled lectures on the pretence of security fears in a deliberate attempt to divide student opinion. The peace-seeking pretense was dripping with charade in the months before the invasion. Or else a fall from the pretence, or realization of the true circumstances, may be a greater jarring of the spirits than the status quo. He scares me and I release my gaze and move over to the mirror with the pretence of adjusting my appearance. Secondly during the course of the negotiations he put forward the pretence about the attempts to obtain finance. At least in recent years the Federal Government has abandoned the pretence of supporting the UN target while making no genuine attempt to achieve it. The man promises to tell his son of her visit and, keeping up the pretence, goes to a masked ball under the guise of his ‘son’. After all its just a thrown together bunch of experiences with the narrowest of pretenses holding it all together. All the players involved in this charade understand they are acting on the flimsiest of pretenses; it's just that relying on polls is so much easier than actually reporting or leading. Synonyms make-believe, act, putting on an act, acting, dissembling, shamming, sham, faking, feigning, simulation, falsification, dissimulation, invention, imagination, self-deception, play-acting, posturing, posture, posing, pose, cant, attitudinizing false show, show, semblance, affectation, false appearance, appearance, outward appearance, impression, image, front, false front, guise, colour, facade, display, posture, pose, masquerade, mask, cloak, veil, veneer, smokescreen, camouflage, cover, travesty, parody, charade pretext, false excuse, guise, sham, ruse, wile, trickery 1.1 A false display of feelings, attitudes, or intentions. 虚伪，虚假 he asked me questions without any pretense at politeness 他毫不客气地问我各种问题。 Example sentencesExamples They'll put on the usual pretenses of being happy to be there, and all, but I know it's all a facade. Marriage has been reduced to the necessary pretenses of true love. Synonyms false show, show, semblance, affectation, false appearance, appearance, outward appearance, impression, image, front, false front, guise, colour, facade, display, posture, pose, masquerade, mask, cloak, veil, veneer, smokescreen, camouflage, cover, travesty, parody, charade 1.2 The practice of inventing imaginary situations in play. 装扮游戏角色 before the age of two, children start to engage in pretense 孩子在两岁以前就开始装扮游戏角色了。 Example sentencesExamples This gap refers to the lack of opportunities to engage in pretense and exploration with language that occurs through free play in the classroom. These people are all engaged in a game of pretence. It appears that the communicative competence is better displayed when children engage in pretense situations. ‘I once told a massager he had magic hands, that was embarrassing,’ I blurted, without thought to set up the background of my story or pretence. Synonyms invention, concoction, piece of fiction, fiction, falsification, falsity, lie, untruth, falsehood, fib, deception, made-up story, trumped-up story, fairy story, fairy tale, cock and bull story, barefaced lie 1.3 Affected and ostentatious speech and behavior. 虚浮炫耀的语言（或行为） Example sentencesExamples It means that we let go of posturing and pretence and live simply as we are, in truth, at ease with ourselves and with others, not having to worry about who's up or who's down, who's in or who's out. There's no self-glorification and no hard-sell behind London's brightest young things, no pomp and no pretence. The novel is also natural in the sense of man's everyday life, done without pretence and pose. A country that wants to see real improvements in real services - not posturing and pretence. And a waiting moment was enough - she and I yet again flinging every possible limit aside, deciding on all manner of pretense and affectation. The former live their lives within a rigid moralism and behavioral codes and have a supercilious social pretense. The walk would be an in-the-flesh demonstration, without pomp and pretence, as to just how in touch with real life our officials at City Hall are, or are not. Besides, he has no tolerance for the pomp, pageantry and pretense of the whole show. But true appreciation of wine derives from the realization that it is meant to be shared with those around us, without pretense or affectation, in proper measure, and as an enhancement to our lives. Ten years passing only heightens his status as a true street poet, devoid of current bling-bling pretense and full of scathing wit and sharp charm. Synonyms pretentiousness, display, ostentation, affectation, showiness, flaunting, posturing, posing, humbug 2pretense toA claim, especially a false or ambitious one. 自吹，自诩，自命 he was quick to disclaim any pretense to superiority 他急忙否认自己以优越自居。 Example sentencesExamples In using the term ‘horrifying’, I am not including am-dram productions of The King and I, which never had any serious pretense to quality. In this regard, the menace of bio-terrorism can be seen as usefully clarifying, since it eliminates all pretence to political legitimacy and announces itself starkly as a planetary scourge. It allows the creative subject to be transformed in and by versions of reality as a result of giving up the pretence to creative autonomy. Finding the enclosures is made more difficult by the sixty odd additions made since the opening, none of which makes any pretence to architectural merit. Describing the film as a reflection of life in present India, the film-maker points out that the roles the characters play within the film become their masks and pretence to higher moral ground. Thus he dismissed as insubstantial any pretence to an absolute form of knowledge, which seeks to soar above the resistant medium of experience. The real scandal is that a newspaper that once had some pretense to quality now prints ignorant drivel like this. At the same time, she would inscribe a self that is so multiple and mutable as to subvert, by its very nature, any pretence to stability - much less the transcendence of a single identity. I'm looking to be entertained: boredom, tedium is the worst literary or filmic sin, and cannot be excused by a pretence to some spurious intellectual superiority. One seductive resolution to this conundrum is to abandon all pretence to scientific neutrality. As in the previous volume, any pretence to scholarship goes out the window when no specific source is given for the great majority of quotations or the books from which analysis is drawn. Synonyms claim, aspiration, purporting, profession Origin Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French pretense, based on medieval Latin pretensus ‘pretended’, alteration of Latin praetentus, from the verb praetendere (see pretend).
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