pretend
[pri-tend]
- 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.
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- 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).
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- Informal. make-believe; simulated; counterfeit: pretend diamonds.
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Origin of pretend
Synonyms
See more synonyms for pretend on Thesaurus.com1. 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. 2018
Examples from the Web for pretend
Contemporary Examples
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 MusicKevin Fallon
December 23, 2014
The irony has thinned with the economy, perhaps: Who can really afford just to pretend to DIY today?
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.”
So just pretend that stuff never happens, would you, ladies?
Renee Zellweger’s Fine, But We Need Some Work: The Toxic Pursuit of ‘Effortless’ BeautyAmanda Marcotte
October 22, 2014
Historical Examples
She would fall in with his better mood and pretend goodness!
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
I must not pretend, then, that I have a system ready to replace all the other systems.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
When they come in, pretend you just came here in order to meet me.
Within the LawMarvin 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 LawMarvin Dana
Stretch yourself full-length in this arm-chair, and pretend to be dead.
The Imaginary InvalidMolire
pretend
- (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)
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- fanciful; make-believe; simulateda pretend gun
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Word Origin
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
v.
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.
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n.
"fact of pretending," 1888, from children's talk, from pretend (v.). Earlier in same sense was verbal noun pretending (1640s).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper