pretence

Definitions

Examples

• Although Vanessa comforted herself with the pretence that I had two fathers, in reality—emotional reality, that is—I had none.

• Kelly, however, goes a step further and abandons any pretence of subtlety.

• At his most devastating, Ellison abandons any pretence of literary realism.

• The latest addition to the most-wanted list, Hafeez Saeed, the head of Lashkar-e-Taiba, does not even make any pretence of hiding.

• We can't disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.

• As the weeks wore on, the pretence of practical teaching was quietly dropped, and we crammed our science out of the text-book.

• By-and-by all pretence of formality and order is put aside and the battle really begins.

• In 1845, this man, who had been a model husband and who made a great pretence of religion maintained Heloise Brisetout.

• They made some pretence of eating and drinking till the two waiters had for the time being departed.

• There are some people who, if they do not know the name or the face of a man, make this a pretence for laughing at him.