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PRETENDED
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Adopted in order to deceive
Example:
sham modesty
Synonyms:
assumed; false; fictitious; fictive; pretended; put on; sham
Classified under:
Similar:
counterfeit; imitative (not genuine; imitating something superior)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb pretend
Context examples:
We happened to sit by the Mitchells, and they pretended to be quite surprised to see me out.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Another stick of the penknife, when she pretended to pat my head: and that is because I said I did not like the society of children and old women (low be it spoken!).
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
He attended them to the last, and left them only at the door of their own house, when he knew them to be going to dinner, and therefore pretended to be waited for elsewhere.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
She was full of jokes and laughter, and before dinner was over had said many witty things on the subject of lovers and husbands; hoped they had not left their hearts behind them in Sussex, and pretended to see them blush whether they did or not.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
He wanted to marry well, and having the arrogance to raise his eyes to her, pretended to be in love; but she was perfectly easy as to his not suffering any disappointment that need be cared for.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Often in bygone wars had the Moors tempted the hot-blooded Spaniards from their places of strength by such pretended flights, but there were men upon the hill to whom every ruse and trick of war were as their daily trade and practice.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It may therefore be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion, but when I see a fellow creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that I may say what I know of her character.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
At length, I got up whenever I saw him coming, and standing on the foot-board, pretended to look at the prospect; after which I did very well.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Then the other pretended to give way, and said, “Thou must let the sack of wisdom descend, by untying yonder cord, and then thou shalt enter.”
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Mrs Musgrove was giving Mrs Croft the history of her eldest daughter's engagement, and just in that inconvenient tone of voice which was perfectly audible while it pretended to be a whisper.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
