Word Finder - pretence

definition

An act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext.

definition

Something asserted or alleged on slight evidence; an unwarranted assumption.

definition

Intention; design.

As a rule they make no real pretence of leading a religious life.

The following classification is simple and convenient; the list of alkaloids makes no pretence at being exhaustive.

The land was during this period threatened at once by the Ftimites from the west; the Nubians from the south, and the Carmathians from the east; when the second Ikshidi died in 965, Kfflr at first made a pretence of appointing his young son Abmad as his successor, but deemed it safer to assume the viceroyalty himself, setting an example which in Mameluke times was often followed.

Without a pretence of negotiation the French government declared on the 16th of November that the Scheldt was thenceforwards open.

He is convinced that virtue (where it is more than a mere pretence) is purely artificial; but not quite certain whether it is a useless trammel of appetites and passions that are advantageous to society, or a device creditable to the politicians who introduced it by playing upon the " pride and vanity " of the " silly creature man."

To Ghazali (q.v.) it seemed that the study of secular philosophy had resulted in a general indifference to religion, and that the Ghazal, scepticism scepticism which concealed itself under a pretence of piety was destroying the life and purity of the nation.

He was the first Visigothic king who wore the crown, and it would appear that he threw off all pretence of allegiance to the empire.

Osman marched against Khotin, but failed to capture it, and his unpopularity with the army was increased by rumours that he designed to collect such troops as were loyal to him, under pretence of going on Ahmed I., 1603-1617.

Some sort of constitutional pretence was given to the decision of the government to persevere with the military reforms by the support of the Upper House, and of this Bismarck availed himself to raise the necessary taxes without the consent of the popular assembly.

Mahommed was a singular character, full of pretence at least to many accomplishments and virtues, the founder of public charities, and a profuse patron of scholars, but a parricide, a fratricide, and as madly capricious, bloodthirsty and unjust as Caligula.

These are, authority, custom, the opinion of the unskilled many, and the concealment of real ignorance with pretence of knowledge.

In Germany itself the king made scarcely any pretence of exercising the supreme authority; for nearly thirty years he never attended the imperial diet, and the suggestions which were made for his deposition failed only because the electors could not agree upon a successor.

Under the pretence that when France gained the Austrian lands in Alsace she also acquired a right to all places that had ever been.

He was released on bail, and in February 1683, after the flight and death of Shaftesbury, he openly broke the implied conditions of his bail by paying a third visit to Chichester with Lord Grey and others on pretence of a hunting expedition.

Once more a pretence of yielding had to be made, until Conds arrival enabled the court to take refuge at Saint-Germain (January 15, 1649).

The most cynical man of the world, he says, with whatever " sullen incredulity " he may repudiate virtue as a hollow pretence, cannot really refuse his approbation to " discretion, caution, enterprise, industry, frugality, economy, good sense, prudence, discernment "; nor again, to " temperance, sobriety, patience, perseverance, considerateness, secrecy, order, insinuation, address, presence of mind, quickness of conception, facility of expression."

The trace of Alexandrian influence is to be found in the pretence that his actual father was Nectanebus, a fugitive king of Egypt.

A month later, under the pretence of stilling the civil strifes in the Valtelline, Bonaparte absorbed that Swiss district in the Cisalpine Republic, which thus included all the lands between Como and Verona on the north, and Rimini on the south.

On the same day Mary wrote to Elizabeth, requesting with graceful earnestness the favour of an interview which might reassure her against the suggestion that this treaty was a mere pretence.

In the year after the battle of the Navas de Tolosa he took up arms against the crusaders of Simon of Montfort, moved not by sympathy with the Albigenses, but by the natural political hostility of the southern princes to the conquering intervention of the north under pretence of religious zeal.

They made no attempt at theological definition, no pretence at logical arrangement; they were anything but a brief programme of reformation.

Then Gustavus so curtailed the power of the bishops (ordinances of 1539 and 1540) that they had little of the dignity left but the name, and even that he was disposed to abolish, for after 1543 the prelates appointed by him, without any pretence of previous, election by the cathedral chapters, were called ordinaries, or superintendents.

He made no pretence to be a searcher of hearts and frequently declines to analyse motives.

Christian suppressed his political opponents under the pretence of defending an ecclesiastical system which in his heart he despised.

For the rest of his reign Henry was ruler of all the old dominions of the Conqueror, and none of his subjects could cloak disloyalty by the pretence of owing a divided allegiance to two masters.

Hence when Richard of Gloucester seized on the person of the young king, and imprisoned Lord Rivers and Sir Richard Grey, the queens brother and son, on the pretence that they were conspiring against him, his action was regarded with equanimity by the people.

As the bloody work went on the pretence of trial became more and more hollow, the chance of acquittal fainter and fainter.

To such a miserable pretence of freedom they all preferred servitude, which at least ensured them a livelihood; and the middle class of freemen thus became gradually extinct.

Meanwhile, however, still more was ceded to the princes than to the kings; and after a pretence of drawing the sword against the prince of Cond, rebellious through jealousy of the Italian surroundings of the queen-mothei, recourse was had to the purse.

A general weariness of civil war gave plenty of opportunity after this to the agents of Mazarin, who in order to facilitate peace made a pretence of exiling himself for a second time to Bouillon.

Like Cervantes at times, Mark Twain reveals a depth of melancholy beneath his playful humour, and like Moliere always, he has a deep scorn and a burning detestation of all sorts of sham and pretence, a scorching hatred of humbug and hypocrisy.

He often addresses himself to the " doubters," some of whom vacillate between faith and unbelief, others make a pretence of faith, while others scarcely take the trouble even to do that.

It is thus different from legal fiction, by which a new rule is introduced surreptitiously, and under the pretence that no change has been made in the law, and from statutory legislation, in which the obligatory force of the rule is not supposed to depend upon its intrinsic fitness.

For some time after the occupation of Rome the pope, in order to substantiate the pretence that his spiritual freedom had been diminished, avoided the creation of cardinals and the nomination of bishops.

The tithes were originally based on one-tenth of the agricultural produce of the country, but this proportion was gradually raised under the euphemistic pretence of " public instruction," but really, under financial pressure, to 12% and again in 1900 for military " equipments " (Tejhizat-i-'Askeriyeh) by a further 2% to 122%.

It was a period of constant conflict conducted by shifting coalitions of the nobles, who under pretence of freeing the king from the undue influence of his favourite were intent on making a puppet of him for their own ends.

The flank defences of the main wall are insufficient; indeed there is no pretence at scientific structure about any part of the defences; but the site of the city is well chosen for defence, and the water supply (drawn by canals from the Arghandab or derived from wells) is good.

When a pretence was made of opening, with an iron instrument, the mouth of the divine statue, to the accompaniment of recited formulae, this can hardly be termed anything but magic. Similarly, the potency attributed to ushebli-figures and the copies of the Book of the Dead deposited in the tombs is magical in quality.

When the rout of the Christians was complete, a Servian named Milosh Kabilovich penetrated to Murad's tent on pretence of communicating an important secret to the sultan, and stabbed the conqueror.

It was necessary to Grotius's defence of Heemskirk that he should show that the Portuguese pretence that Eastern waters were their private property was untenable.

According to the ordinary practice towards parties in opposition, public meetings were broken up on the smallest pretence, and numerous prosecutions for insult to government officials (Beamtenbeleidigung) were brought against members of the party.

All pretence of moderation was put aside, and he marched on London, using the full arms of England, and with his sword borne upright before him.

To the last he maintained the pretence of personal rule, but the machinery of government fell out of gear, and the disorder of the finances was never remedied before the revolution of 1789.

When it met, it acknowledged him as king, but made no pretence of creating or electing him to be sovereign.

The number of those who were shot, drowned or otherwise massacred without the pretence of a trial can never be accurately known, but must be reckoned far greater.

Formerly the fakirs were always nude and smeared with ashes; but now they are compelled to wear some pretence of clothing.

He made some distinction between hearsay and authentic information, but had no pretence to accuracy, his retentive memory being the chief authority.

As in the case of everything Japanese, there is no pretence, no uselesi expenditure about the process.

Could our modern freemasons continue to hide their watchwords and ritual, or even make a pretence of doing so, if they were constrained by public opinion to initiate every child three years of age?

His new wife longed for the necklace and peplus, and Alcmaeon, returning to Psophis, obtained possession of them, on the pretence that he desired to dedicate them at Delphi.