Pre-tēnse' or Pre-tēnce', n.
n. [L. Lat. prætensus, for Lat. prætentus, p. p. of prætendere; Sp. pretensa. See PRETEND, and Note under OFFENSE.]
Sense 1. The act of holding out or offering to others something false or feigned; presentation of what is deceptive or hypocritical; false show; simulation; — sometimes preceded by on; as, on pretense of revenging Cesar's death. Middleton.
Let not Trojans, with a feigned pretense Of proffered peace, delude the Latian prince. Dryden.
Sense 2. That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show; pretext. “Pretense of danger.” Shak.
Sense 3. The act of pretending or laying claim; claim laid; assumption.
Primogeniture can not have any pretense to a right of solely inheriting property or power. Locke.
I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford. Evelyn.
Synonyms—Mask; appearance; color; show; pretext; excuse.—PRETENSE, PRETEXT. A pretense is something held out as real when it is not so, thus falsifying the truth. A pretext is something woven up in order to cover or conceal one's true motives, feelings, or ends of action. The piety of the Pharisees was all a pretense, and their long prayers were a pretext to conceal their hypocrisy. Crabb errs in saying, that a “pretext” is always wrong, and “serves to hide something seriously culpable or wicked.” We do, in most cases, use the word in a bad sense; and yet we could speak of a person in company as “making a pretext for leaving the room,” without implying that he was guilty of any thing “culpable or wicked” in so doing.
With flying speed, and seeming great pretense, Came running in a messenger. Spenser.
He made pretext that I should only go And help convey his freight; but thought not so. Chapman.