pretend

[pri-tend]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR pretend ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

to cause or attempt to cause (what is not so) to seem so: to pretend illness; to pretend that nothing is wrong.

to appear falsely, as to deceive; feign: to pretend to go to sleep.

to make believe: The children pretended to be cowboys.

to presume; venture: I can't pretend to say what went wrong.

to allege or profess, especially insincerely or falsely: He pretended to have no knowledge of her whereabouts.

verb (used without object)

to make believe.

to lay claim to (usually followed by to): She pretended to the throne.

to make pretensions (usually followed by to): He pretends to great knowledge.

Obsolete. to aspire, as a suitor or candidate (followed by to).

adjective

Informal. make-believe; simulated; counterfeit: pretend diamonds.

Origin of pretend

1325–75; Middle English pretenden < Latin praetendere to stretch forth, put forward, pretend. See pre-, tend¹

Can be confusedportend pretend (see synonym study at the current entry)

Synonyms for pretend

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR pretend ON THESAURUS.COM

1. simulate, fake, sham, counterfeit. Pretend, affect, assume, feign imply an attempt to create a false appearance. To pretend is to create an imaginary characteristic or to play a part: to pretend sorrow. To affect is to make a consciously artificial show of having qualities that one thinks would look well and impress others: to affect shyness. To assume is to take on or put on a specific outward appearance, often (but not always) with intent to deceive: to assume an air of indifference. To feign implies using ingenuity in pretense, and some degree of imitation of appearance or characteristics: to feign surprise.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for pretend

fool, feign, purport, assume, impersonate, bluff, profess, imitate, suppose, claim, cheat, fish, whitewash, dupe, beguile, allege, counterfeit, fudge, sham, masquerade

Examples from the Web for pretend

Contemporary Examples of pretend

For Kirke it was being paid to pretend to play the oboe that heightened her affair with classical music.
‘Mozart in the Jungle’: Inside Amazon’s Brave New World of Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music
Kevin Fallon
December 23, 2014
The irony has thinned with the economy, perhaps: Who can really afford just to pretend to DIY today?
Glenn Beck Is Now Selling Hipster Clothes. Really.
Ana Marie Cox
December 20, 2014
Quickly, the lines between their pretend feelings for each other and their real ones are blurred.
Team Peeta or Team Gale: Why the ‘Hunger Games’ Love Triangle Ruins ‘Mockingjay – Part 1’
Kevin Fallon
November 28, 2014
Or: “Jazz: Just pretend you like it, that's what everyone else is doing.”
What’s With This Uncool Surge in Jazz Bashing?
Ted Gioia
November 2, 2014
So just pretend that stuff never happens, would you, ladies?
Renee Zellweger’s Fine, But We Need Some Work: The Toxic Pursuit of ‘Effortless’ Beauty
Amanda Marcotte
October 22, 2014

Historical Examples of pretend

She would fall in with his better mood and pretend goodness!
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald
I must not pretend, then, that I have a system ready to replace all the other systems.
A Treatise on Parents and Children
George Bernard Shaw
When they come in, pretend you just came here in order to meet me.
Within the Law
Marvin Dana
Why did you pretend to me that you and your wife were alone in the room—when you had that there with you, eh?
Within the Law
Marvin Dana
Stretch yourself full-length in this arm-chair, and pretend to be dead.
The Imaginary Invalid
Molire

British Dictionary definitions for pretend

pretend

verb

(when tr, usually takes a clause as object or an infinitive) to claim or allege (something untrue)

(tr; may take a clause as object or an infinitive) to make believe, as in a playyou pretend to be Ophelia

(intr foll by to) to present a claim, esp a dubious oneto pretend to the throne

(intr foll by to) obsolete to aspire as a candidate or suitor (for)

adjective

fanciful; make-believe; simulateda pretend gun

Word Origin for pretend

C14: from Latin praetendere to stretch forth, feign, from prae in front + tendere to stretch

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pretend

late 14c., "to profess, assert, maintain" (a claim, etc.), "to direct (one's) efforts," from Old French pretendre "to lay claim," from Latin praetendere "stretch in front, put forward, allege," from prae "before" (see pre-) + tendere "to stretch," from PIE root *ten- "to stretch" (see tend).

Main modern sense of "feign, put forward a false claim" is recorded from c.1400; the older sense of simply "to claim" is behind the string of royal pretenders (1690s) in English history. Meaning "to play, make believe" is recorded from 1865. In 17c. pretend also could mean "make a suit of marriage for," from a sense in French. Related: Pretended; pretending.

"fact of pretending," 1888, from children's talk, from pretend (v.). Earlier in same sense was verbal noun pretending (1640s).