preˈtended, ppl. a.
[f. pretend v. + -ed1.]
† 1. Put forward for consideration or acceptance.
| 1646 Gataker Mistake Removed To Rdr. 1 A bush sufficient of itself to invite to such pretious pretended liquor. |
2. Alleged, asserted; claimed to be such. a. Said of a title or designation which the speaker does not admit or allow: Reputed, so-called.
| 1461 Rolls of Parlt. V. 490/2 The pretensed reigne of any of the seid late pretended Kynges. 1640–1 Kirkcudbr. War-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855) 4 The woode and bark thairof, quhilk pertaines to the pretendit bischope of Edinburgh. 1683 Apol. Prot. France iv. 52 The Edict..allowed the Protestants the free exercise of their Religion, which..was to be called The Pretended Reformed Religion. 1688 Burnet Let. 25 Dec. in Eng. Hist. Rev. July (1886) 535 That this Assembly is to Judge..the birth of the Pretended Prince. 1709–10 Steele Tatler No. 115 ¶1 One Isaac Bickerstaff, a Pretended Esquire. |
b. Applied to things of which the speaker does not admit the existence, reality, or validity.
| c 1500 in I. S. Leadam Star Chamb. Cases (1903) 96 The saide Erle hathe seased the body of your saide Oratoure by reason of his pretended title. 1564 in Scott. Antiq. Oct. (1901) 80 The makyng and compulsit grantyng of the said pretendit infeftment. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Westmld. (1662) ii. 140 A railing Jesuit wrote a pretended Confutation thereof. 1679 Evelyn Diary 23 Nov., Shewing with how little reason the Papists applied those words..to maintaine the pretended infallibility they boast of. 1771 Luckombe Hist. Print. 68 Dr. Barnes was prior, who was burnt for pretended heresy. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps v. §17. 153 A stranger instance..of the daring variation of pretended symmetry. |
c. Put forward as a pretext, excuse, defence, etc.; professed falsely or insincerely.
| 1643 Milton Divorce ix. Wks. 1851 IV. 46 The pretended reason of it is as frigid as frigidity it self. 1695 Enq. Anc. Const. Eng. Pref. 7 Sacrificing (under the will-worship of a pretended loyalty) the religion, civil Liberties and properties of their country to Cæsar's will. 1873 H. Rogers Orig. Bible i. (1875) 33 They..made the pretended service of God a reason for evading the most sacred obligations. |
3. Hence, That professes or is represented to be what it is not; fictitious, counterfeit, feigned.
| 1727 Gay Fables i. xvii. 34 An open foe may prove a curse, But a pretended friend is worse. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia iii. viii, With a pretended laugh, he hastily left her. 1884 D. Hunter tr. Reuss' Hist. Canon xiii. 264 A pretended Confession of Faith, dated 1120, which is now known to be forged, at least antedated, and to belong at the earliest to the year 1532. |
† 4. Intended, designed, purposed, proposed. Obs.
| 1573 New Custom i. i. in Hazl. Dodsley III. 13 For the better accomplishing our subtlety pretended, It were expedient that both our names were amended. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. Author's Pref. 2 Therbye to attayne vnto his pretended intente. 1600 Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 86 Two small barks..wherein he intended to complete his pretended voyage. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. p. lxxiii, The suffering Populace, whose pretended Forfeitures were granted before Conviction. 1703 De Foe Reas. agst. War w. France Misc. 194 That we should..be Insulted by the French in the Article of the pretended New King [of Spain]. |