PRETENDED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pretended mean? 

• PRETENDED (adjective)
  The adjective PRETENDED has 1 sense:

1. adopted in order to deceive

  Familiarity information: PRETENDED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRETENDED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Adopted in order to deceive

Synonyms:

assumed; false; fictitious; fictive; pretended; put on; sham

Context example:

sham modesty

Similar:

counterfeit; imitative (not genuine; imitating something superior)

 Context examples 

Anne was obliged to turn away, to rise, to walk to a distant table, and, leaning there in pretended employment, try to subdue the feelings this picture excited.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

“It would be no pleasure to a London tradesman to sell anything which was what he pretended it was.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He called to him to stop, but the guest pretended not to hear.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Had he been on deck, he could no longer so much as have pretended not to understand the situation.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“That is the most unforgiving speech,” said Elizabeth, “that I ever heard you utter. Good girl! It would vex me, indeed, to see you again the dupe of Miss Bingley's pretended regard.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He pretended knowledge of Dennin's absence, and affected a mysterious air, while they clamored for information.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I therefore pretended to fall in with his views, and asked him what dates I should put on the letters.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I didn't like to ask, as everyone knew it or pretended they did.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I was able to invent names for my parents, whom I pretended to be obscure people in the province of Gelderland.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

These pretended journeys to France were rather cumbrous.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)