pretension1
[pri-ten-shuh n]
- the laying of a claim to something.
- a claim or title to something.
- Often pretensions. a claim made, especially indirectly or by implication, to some quality, merit, or the like: They laughed at my pretensions to superior judgment.
- a claim to dignity, importance, or merit.
- pretentiousness.
- the act of pretending or alleging.
- an allegation of doubtful veracity.
- a pretext.
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Origin of pretension1
pretension2
[pree-ten-shuh n]
- (in prestressed-concrete construction) to apply tension to (reinforcing strands) before the concrete is poured.Compare posttension(def 1).
- to make (a concrete member) with pretensioned reinforcement.
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Origin of pretension2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for pretension
Contemporary Examples
Trekkies are defensive about the minutiae of their sacred source material, sometimes to the point of pretension.
Humor, after all, is a social corrective against arrogance, ignorance and pretension.
But it's also because, from the APF's point of view, pretension is bad business.
People loved Julia because she was very straightforward, and she didn't put on any airs, or have any pretension.
“So corrupt, evil, vile American liberal culture, such United States pretension,” as Pygmy reports.
Historical Examples
To folly, to pretension, to presumption, he showed but slight forbearance.
Alice, or The Mysteries, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
Where the pretension is higher, the test may justly be more severe.
The Utopian ideas which I have expressed have in no way the pretension to be new.
The Sexual QuestionAugust Forel
I speak generally, and not with any pretension to exactness.
The RepublicPlato
He has pretension; he wishes and attempts things beyond his force.
Essays, Second SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
pretension
- (often plural) a false or unsupportable claim, esp to merit, worth, or importance
- a specious or unfounded allegation; pretext
- the state or quality of being pretentious
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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 pretension
n.
mid-15c., "assertion, allegation; objection; intention; signification," from Medieval Latin pretensionem (nominative praetensio), noun of action from past participle stem of Latin praetendere "stretch in front, put forward, allege" (see pretend (v.)). Meaning "unproven claim" is from c.1600. Sense of "ostentation" is from 1727.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper