I never before saw a family so stricken down by a domestic misfortune as the group I found in the drawing-room, making a dejected pretence of reading or working.
He took it and spelt it out with a pretence of great caution, but I saw well enough that the old scoundrel suspected that if I had lost a dog at all, it was not this particular dog.
So Winifred hid her face in her hands obediently, very glad to be spared even the pretence of an execution, and earnestly wishing Archie was near the end of this uncomfortable game.
The Countess had no longer the slightest pretenceto beauty, but she preserved all the habits of her youth.
Sir Edmundbury was induced to go to the spot where he was strangled under the pretence that, as a justice of the peace, he could stop a quarrel that was going on.
If Brian does not cross himself until he feels more fatigue than he would after a pretence at rowing, I'll never play Banshee again," said the girl.
It loves books which make a pretence of introducing their readers to fashionable society: this book deals with the life of the street.
She's been there two or three times on the pretence of buying something.
She prepared mademoiselle's breakfast, made a pretence of working, and kept moving about the apartment, clinging to the chairs and dragging herself along.
If the gazing visitor be a person of abandoned character he makes humourous pretence that the householder has done wisely to turn a key upon these treasures, against the ravishings of the overwhelmed and frenzied connoisseur.
When he "played" with Baby Akemit thereafter, the pretence was not all with the child.
He is so afraid of me, for all his pretence of boldness.
Money was distributed among them, much less indeed than they asked, but much more than they had any decent pretence for asking.
Several consultations were held; and there was one great muster of the party under the pretence of a masquerade, for which tickets were distributed among the initiated at one guinea each.
This motion would probably have been carried, had not Foley gone somewhat beyond the duties of his place, and, under pretence of speaking to order, shown that such a tack would be without a precedent in parliamentary history.
But it was well understood that she would receive, without any contest, the utmost that she could have any pretence for asking as soon as she and her husband should retire to Provence or to Italy.
Transformism makes no pretence to account for the origin of life, whether animal or vegetable.
She was wont to make a pretence of reading as she sat in her retired corner of the salon; but Gustave had discovered that she gave little attention to her book.
And then he told the shallow-brained idiot that he thought he would write a line to his brother; and on that pretence went into Philip's office.
Diana and Valentine sat silent and anxious; and after the faintest pretence of eating and drinking, they both left the table, to stroll drearily in the garden.
But the old gentleman made no pretence that he could "hear the East a-callin'.
Iris made no pretence in the matter, and the sailor was in worse plight, for he had been on duty continuously since four o'clock the previous afternoon.
On pretence of seeking my advice, she inveigled me at night into a deserted corner of the Club grounds at Hong Kong.
He did not foresee that the party of which he was then the leader would, under duress, abandon even the pretence of consulting the "predominant partner," much less be guided by its wishes.
Captain Sheriff, my aide-de-camp, goes to Boston underpretence of private business, and will deliver you this letter.
The "Hume" was sent, and I hope reached you a week ago; and as my conscience just now inquired in a very sneering and unpleasant tone whether I had any further pretence for not writing on hand, I thought I might as well stop her mouth at once.
Lord knows, I made no pretenceat angelic virtues, and ’twas there, by my faith, I was different from yourself!
Nobody is allowed to stay from work on pretence of attending a sick person, except the wife and the mother in dangerous cases of illness.
They were at first opposed by the English, under pretence that some emigrants of that nation had formerly begun to clear it.
The author makes no pretence of writing a scientific historical or sociological treatise.
But if Aquilius's definition is correct, pretenceand concealment should be done away with in all departments of our daily life.
Then an honest man will not be guilty of either pretence or concealment in order to buy or to sell to better advantage.
On pretence of wanting a doughnut I got her into the pantry and shut both doors.
Twenty or thirty people at the station saw them starting away together, each attempting to avoid recognition, each in the pretence of avoiding the other, each with excited manners.
The argument that to unmask hypocrisy was in itself laudable she dismissed with contempt; let that be the resource of a woman who would indulge her rancour whilst keeping up the inward pretence of sanctity.
In comparison with this sincerity, what becomes of the pretence you blame in me?
At breakfast he had noticed her heavy eyes, and that she made only a pretence of eating.
He wished you to believe that my love was as much a pretence as my religion?
A ludicrous pretence of education is banishing every form of native simplicity.
When the name of her elder son was again mentioned she withdrew on the pretence of summoning him, and went up to his room.
But in him the pretence is justified: he has enjoyed thinking out his subject, he will delight in his work when it is done.
If our pretence do not come off, we have only ourselves to blame.
In yet later days, the pretence became more realistic.
In America, where no kings have been, they are able to make a pretence of enthusiasm for a President.
In France, where kings have been, no one can get up the slightest pretence of emotion for the President.
Very different is the pretence of one who writes at top-speed, on a set subject, what he thinks the editor thinks the proprietor thinks the public thinks nice.
To her mind it was like reading a confirmation that Tito had won his safety by foul means; his pretence of wishing that the Frate should exert himself on behalf of the condemned only helped the wretched conviction.
Sometimes it was simply a legatio libera, a sinecure without any pretence of purpose, sometimes it was voti causa, enabling a man to fulfil some vow he was supposed to have made.
For everyone's real character is covered by many wrappings of pretence and is concealed by a kind of veil: face, eyes, expression very often lie, speech most often of all.
Myself, with the most elaborate pretence of affection and the closest daily intimacy, he treated with the most utter want of principle and the most consummate treachery, and Q.
Similarly in modern harvest-customs the pretence of killing appears to be carried out quite as often on the person of the master (farmer or squire) as on that of strangers.
Captain O'Connell, under pretence of some errand, was dispatched to New York and passed the mattress off as his bed.
A small party of Indians came to the fort with the pretence of friendship, and were admitted.
Richard Lippincott, a New Jersey loyalist, to Sandy Hook, where he was hanged on the pretence that he had been engaged in causing the death of Philip White, a Tory, who had been killed while endeavoring to escape from his guard.
On May 27th, a party of Indians appeared at the fort under the pretence of wishing to trade, and were treated as spies.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "pretence" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
